turtlesareneat

And just try reading it over the phone to someone, especially a non-native-english speaker.

My personal email is first initial with last name, which I can simply tell them without having to try to spell anything out.

I have a state job tho, and there it’s first initial and middle initial and last name, why the hell… now I can’t email a colleague without looking at a sheet to find their middle initial. Stupid.

My inlaws do a big 4th of July fireworks show, for many years a drone would come hover 100ft above us, recording it. We never found out who it was. Fairly creepy actually.

I have a drone and played with it a fair amount, drove it around my neighborhood, well beyond the “line of sight” requirement. I managed to hit trees several times because it doesn’t have fancy avoidance features. Hard to tell from the single camera when you’re rising up or backing into a tree branch.

Eventually I got bored tho. I did learn how to file flight plans, do all the things right. I live near an air force base, so there are entire sections of the city including parks where I cannot fly it.

Eventually it gets a little boring. I can’t wait for my toddler to get a bit older and then he will think it’s fun. For a week, and then he’ll get bored.

I got a hotdog at a food truck that appeared near my house a few years ago. I asked for just ketchup on the dog. She laughed and said “You’re a little boy! That’s OK, little boys get hotdogs too.” I’m like, lady I am giving you money right now, is there a version of this encounter where you’re not judging me?

Developmental psychology (Erik Erickson’s theory) teaches us that adults tend to go one of two ways as they approach and hit mid-life - generativity and stagnation. People who have a purpose, who are considering leaving some sort of mark or legacy, to contributing to society tend to fare better. They are happier and more satisfied as time goes on. Folks who become self-absorbed and preoccupied with their own comfort and convenience will then stagnate, which you can imagine is the cranky old person stereotype.

I do subscribe to this theory which is why at 43 I am running a non-profit I started, working to empower other leaders in my community, working on changing legislation for my community, working on building the community itself. I want to be the kind of person who is generous and kind and open-hearted, and be fulfilled. I don’t want to be the person who is counting the ways life did them wrong, using that as a justification to lick wounds and retreat from life, jaded and alone.

My boss claims it has “no effect” to choose where to spend your money.

I remind him, voting with our wallets is literally the only mechanism Capitalism provides for consumer ethics.

It’s Prisoner’s dilemma. When we think 5m people are going to take the action either way, we don’t think our singular efforts matter. But as there are 5m of us taking the action, there are 5m singular efforts that DO matter. If people just don’t give up on the idea.

Says the guy who still has an Amazon account :/

I have to rewrite this because Lemmy tossed my comment, links are not accepted in my comments for some reason.

Australia implemented a gun ban and buyback program in 1996 which saw decreases in gun violence, suicides, and mass shootings. This was following a mass shooting in Tasmania.

Since these were already trending downward, some claim the program had no effect. But they collected over 650k guns and IMO this helped the stats fall further. https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/analysis/essays/1996-national-firearms-agreement.html

Another buyback program started last year because of a terrorist attack on Bondi Beach. This program is off to a rocky start with a lot of resistance, but it’s only been a few months since they started implementing it.

Class warfare will be the foundation it’s all built on. Any tech developed for the moon, Mars, whatever - anything we gain in knowledge in return - is going to go to benefit rich fuckers, not you. One day there will be more space tourists. Rich people, not you. Maybe one day Man will even colonize another world. Rich people, not you.

If you wait long enough the government just does it for you

Go to the mall, find a sunglasses stand. Try on polarized sunglasses until you find something you like under $12 or so.

You’ll find the brand/model number written somewhere on the frame. Google it, and find someplace to buy them by the case.

By a case of 10, put it in your drawer. Bonus points for getting it in another color (I have a set of white frame chunky glasses, but also the exact same model in black for fancy occasions).

Now you have sunglasses you can afford to lose constantly, a backup supply, and a signature look.

I am working to build queer community in my Southern red state. It’s hard, and everyone wants more from me than I can deliver. Trying to help a volunteer write a grant proposal. Trying to keep my shit together. Trying to move a thousand small boulders up a thousand small hills.

I do feel valued when I see my son, and he comes running up to me, and gives me a huge hug, which will happen tonight.

But I am also terribly lonely, and it’s the kind where plenty of people are around me, but I am still lonely, because I am not able to be open and authentic to them. They want a leader . Being vulnerable has caused problems with that.

Every once in a while I can buy a bag of weed and then, for a while, none of it matters and I can just roll the boulders all day.