I’m an 8-5’er alright. I live for the mornings. I like to think I’m blasting through my best energy for the day before I even get to work.

Alarm is set for 4:45am, which lets me get my teeth brushed and pre-workout downed before the gym two blocks from my house opens at 5. I’m up at 3:45-4:15am every morning. I go to bed at 8pm. Once every 1-2 months, I’ll hear my alarm.

Why are all the kids being born in Silicon Valley getting diagnosed with ASD?? Maybe because at least one of their software engineer parents could/should have been.

This was apparently one of the starting points in the US according to the book Neurotribes.

I realize they’re not really for the dead, but the living decide that their dead bodies are entitled to more space than some living. Plots cost thousands of dollars. We ostracize the unhoused. Our priorities are broken, and graveyards are yet another thing for those “with” that those “without” will not have.

Agreed, but that’s also weird. Suddenly they’re the arbiter of what rules are okay to break and what aren’t? Sounds like they’re just trying to keep costs/traffic down.

Graveyards are a disgusting waste of space. Their existence communicates to society that many dead people are more entitled to space on this Earth than some living people will ever have.

I only have the context of a somewhat informed person in a college financial aid office. It’s really the illegal or refugee/asylee population that has to worry right now unless you’re here as a permanent resident and have protested against the ethnic cleansing of Gaza (or as the republicans are calling it, “antisemitism”) on a billion dollar campus.

They don’t have a strategy yet for de-naturalizing naturalized citizens (they are discussing this), but if you’re white and not Muslim, you’re probably not drawing their attention.

They call 13 year old girls “young women,” so it stands to reason that they’re talking about getting teenage boys into the workforce for minimum wage here, yeah.

Thank you! I’m getting a sugar glider next on the forearm, as we work it all towards a sleeve. Sugar gliders were our first pet and a horrible mistake (high maintenance/smelly) but so adorable. So starting next week and for at least two more full day sessions, I’ll be getting a sugar glider inspired by Diablo 2.

Learn the calls of all the frogs in your area and see if the local DNR (or equivalent if not in the USA) needs help keeping a running survey of frog populations in order. It’s an infrequent but rewarding hobby. You can also upload to major biodiversity projects like iNaturalist.

The picture is my arm. Wife and I got nearly matching tattoos for our 15th anniversary.

Shit, you’re right. We can’t have that. Can’t wait to watch read about Josh Hawley breaking Booker’s new record with a speech about how freedom of religion is discriminatory against christians and only christians.

Yeah I’m pretty far down the comments here and am just dumbfounded, as a 40+/m. I’m married, so maybe my perspective is skewed, but I’m anxious, introverted, and also don’t feel like dating would be that much of a challenge if I found myself in that scene again.

For one, rejection isn’t personal. They’re doing me a favor if they decline or ghost me because I’m not going to waste more time on that relationship. I figured that out in my early 20s. I may need a couple weeks or months between because I don’t have an abundance of social energy, but it’s not that big of a deal either.

And then having hobbies is a great way to meet like-minded people. The more people you encounter with similar interests, the more likely you’ll encounter someone with whom you may connect on another level. It’s more difficult online, so I’d probably spend more time doing my outdoor things (birding, photography, surveying frog calls, etc) rather than gaming. They’re mostly solo hobbies, but I do often find myself meeting people who want to chat about it while I’m out and about.

I thought I was one of the most socially inept people I know, but I can’t relate to what I’m reading here. Maybe we need to work on our personal boundaries more and understand ourselves better before we’re pursuing relationships.

The book bans are a war on romance fiction. I think I live in a state where it’s the most egregious though, so maybe this isn’t as wide spread yet as the porn bans.

I think it’s a reasonable assessment of the current situation. He wants/they want to put us in a situation where our military must or can be used to restore order. They want to normalize military use against US citizens.

Or use it as a product search engine, then go to the supplier or an alternate online store to buy the one you want. I don’t have it on my phone but do go to it in browser occasionally for that.

Sure was. After Pell Grant and whatnot, I only needed most of my subsidized loan to live on campus at a private four year college.

It feels weird to be old enough to watch us repeat that cycle but with more fascism this time. At least I learned to always live in fear and anxiety that everything could be lost in a moment, so now my emergency fund is decent.

I’m not an economist, but is this where we

1. Lower interest rates to “help the economy”

2. Normal people still can’t afford things because we’re in a recession

3. Normal people start losing their homes

4. Rich people have cheap loans to buy said homes due to interest rate drops

5. Rich people rent out new homes to normal people for more than they were paying in mortgage, after normal people rebound or figure out how to make it work with two families in the home

6. America is…great?

Oh we are. Can’t really call ourselves “Iowa Nice” at this point. No one is trying harder to get 45’s attention than Governor Reynolds, aka The Kim Reaper. We’ve got private school vouchers, we nuked our progressive tax brackets in favor of a flat tax, and we even started our own DOGE.

The UK vs EU and the states vs the USA is not apples to apples. As I understand it though, we’re actually approaching 20 US states requiring such verification. Iowa is trying to pass something similar. This is a trend across the country, which is why I generalized the USA.

https://www.ipvanish.com/blog/us-age-verification-laws/

They’ll ultimately just have to cut off the US Internet from the rest of the world, right? As long as we can access other countries with more freedom, we can enjoy that level of freedom on the Internet. Or am I not understanding how the Internet works (entirely possible)?