That’s true. I’d only use a VPN service that’s been audited (either by a security company or, preferably, law enforcement) not to keep logs. There are only a small handful of those however. It really all depends on your needs. There are far more VPN services that do log and sell the data, and/or turn your host device into a proxy for other users/services.

Is that better or worse than giving advertisers the data point that you’re high-tech knowledgable and browse personal accounts from a server in a datacenter?

This only works if you don’t want the privacy enhancing aspect of advertisers not tying your activity to an IP address.

Beyond more safely using open Wi-Fi or bypassing a censoring ISP, there isn’t much reason there.

that’s ecstatic

I like that on Lemmy I can share a viewpoint contrary to both the current black and white views, and people will take the time to read my entire comment, share their views on it, agree or disagree with me, but at the end of the day it’s a discussion.

It’s like pre-2014 reddit.

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It depends on a mixture of features… With the beard, the face, attire, etc. If you have kind eyes, you can have almost any beard and not look crazy. Here are some examples.

1

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Versus

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Versus

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Yes I was just sharing a side-thought while agreeing and sharing a story.

Melatonin helps me stay and fall asleep, which is bad for me somewhat considering I can easily accidentally sleep 12 hours if my alarm goes off during a deep sleep cycle. But if I had something to help me fall asleep and maybe calm me for a few hours, that’d be ideal.

Maybe I’ll try some chamomile.

that’s why we had the opioid epidemic and not an opioid pandemic…

Maybe. But I think there are also just a lot of people that are not dealing with enough trauma and mental pain (pain-killers/type not specific) that their inner voice stops them from seeking it out.

My dad had a friend with brain cancer. He was in hospice many years ago and knew that I had struggled with addiction. He said he had received hydrocodone and oxycodone after surgeries before (he’d had many) but they always made him nauseous and feel like shit. Then at the end when he was in hospice they gave him a fentanyl patch. He said “MyName, WOW, I FINALLY UNDERSTAND how people can get addicted to this stuff now. This is remarkable!”

Off-topic story: shortly after he passed I was looking for ways to painlessly “catch the bus” on the internet (I’m fine now, this was many moons ago) and bawling my eyes out as I thought about my family and what I’d be putting them through. Suddenly, the piano next to me blasted as if someone had pounded 10 of the keys at once as hard as they possibly could. No pets, no other people home.

I’ve been through a lot since then and am happy to say I am doing fine now, but that’s one of those many WTF moments that turned me from a staunch materialistic atheist into a more spiritually understanding person.

That and the DMT. Only slightly riffing, DMT came way before that.

Riffing. There’s a word used far too little, I hope I remember it later so I can use it later. ‘joking around’, ‘kidding’ ‘just joshing’… I need more riffing in my life.

It depends completely on the plant, the processing (if any), and other factors. I know nothing about lemongrass but St Johns Wort for example is GABAergic, acts on serotonin and dopamine, and under controlled trials shows clinical significance.

Placebo is one of those factors and it can be a MASSIVE factor. Conversely, nocebo, the opposite of placebo shows that if patients do not believe something will work, even though it’s shown highly significant clinical success, chances of it working on them are far less.

I am a very natural and human speaker, after all! I am composed of 100% bioorganic matter.

Well, it is federated and the main lemmy.ml site is full of tankies in disguise. So I imagine it spreads.

If we could get rid of the corruption and feel some sense of duty and control over our countries again instead of land mattering more than people when it came to the voting process, and getting fucked every which way from Saturday in the process, maybe people would feel less apt to dig.

I don’t know if this is the case with you but if you have naturally wide eyes (say, anxiety for example) then a full tooth smile is creepy looking. Relaxed eyes on the other hand (think pictures of happily stoned people) are fine showing full mouth IMO.

Although some people “grit” or “bare(/bear?)” their teeth in an attempt to fake a natural laughter smile and… no. The muscles around the mouth should be relaxed not tense. There’s no substitute for a candid laughter smile. But not many people can fake the crows feet in the eyes of a real smile, so if someone is more comfortable smiling with no teeth showing, that’s more than fine.

I’ve done a bit of photography in my day.

Horses, cows, fences, houses, nothing. They stand on two legs like bipedal humanoids.

Would it be wrong to assume you are self-conscious about your teeth (crooked, missing, etc)? This is the case with every American I know that doesn’t like to smile on photos, although sometimes they’re people who are happy to do full-burst laughter showing all in small trusted group settings.

This is interesting. Even skinny Americans? I’ve never heard this, but I have heard you can tell someone is American because people from elsewhere don’t lean on things when standing.