Real talk: I think the end goal of the internet has to be some kind of democratic world government. The only other option is corporate capture. I don’t know how it’ll work, I don’t know how to solve the problems of ensuring privacy and fair elections or fair distribution of resources or any of that stuff that would have to be solved for, but I think some sort of global, grassroots movement that enables self-governance from the neighborhood level all the way up to global concerns is needed to prevent us from sliding further into entrenched global plutocracy.

Mine too

Yeah, but I don’t want to let The First Noel entirely off the hook. Lots of english christian songs are translations and/or centuries old adaptations and/or lyrics grafted onto previously written music, and quality varies of course but for some reason, for me, this one stands out for banality.

No song drives me into an irrational fury like “The First Noel”. It’s slow, the melody sucks and the lyrics are the laziest drivel I have ever had the displeasure of being subjected to.

The first Noel the angels did say

ok, “did say” is a little clunky but you want an easy rhyme, that I can forgive

Was to certain poor shepherds
In fields as they lay,

alright, we’ve established some context. The angels are talking to some shepherds.

In fields where they lay

Yeah we get it, they’re laying in the fields

Keeping their sheep

yes, they’re SHEPHERDS we get context

on a cold winter's night
that wa-as so deep.

The night was SO DEEP? That’s what you came up with to rhyme with sheep? A line we didn’t need because we already established that they’re fucking SHEPHERDS aaagh FUCK this song I’m not going to go through the whole thing but there are SEVERAL more verses and they all suck just as bad. How many hours of my childhood did I spend having to sit through this miserable drivel and it’s SO SLOW every time I hear it I feel like my brain is being forced to wear a too-tight necktie.

finally a use for TracerT besides seeing which IPs are connected to google (and seeing whether their connection speed is good or sucks ass)

Yeah, I think that’s a good distinction to draw. Loving someone, even deeply and madly and truly, is not sufficient for a relationship. Love in a relationship has to be an open, working, two-way street. I love my mom, I genuinely want her to be happy, but I do not have a relationship with her, because she can’t love me or herself. Relationships are always conditional, that’s ultimately what boundaries are.

I do. Unconditional love doesn’t mean not having boundaries, and mutually enforcing boundaries is an essential part of being in a mature, loving relationship.

IMO loving someone means genuinely wanting what’s best for them, and genuinely wanting them to be happy. That’s different from wanting to gratify all of their desires; loving an alcoholic, for example, does not mean pouring them a drink, even if that’s what they want most in the world. In the context of a relationship, also means loving (and caring for) yourself. Caring for someone else at the expense of your own well being is unsustainable at best. At worst, it’s barely sustainable and inertia will lock you both into a lifelong dysfunctional relationship in which neither of you are happy, and neither of you know how to get out. It’s a pretty dismal way to spend a huge chunk of your life, and it is shockingly easy to fall into without noticing.

Pressuring you to take drugs isn’t a great sign, seems like they are trying to problem solve unilaterally instead of bilaterally. Sounds to me like you gotta have a tough conversation about the relationship, and you have to decide if they are willing to listen to, understand, and respect your boundaries. That might mean not having sex as often as they want to. Might mean something else. I’d see if they’re able to reckon with your wants and desires and try to collaboratively come to a mutually agreeable situation. But if they can’t or won’t take your needs and boundaries seriously, they don’t deserve you, and you don’t deserve that.

GL ❤️

They both refer to behaviors or attributes associated with children, but “childish” has a generally negative connotation and “childlike” has a generally positive connotation. e.g. “childish behavior” is usually something the author judges inappropriate, where “childlike wonder” is usually rendered as a positive (if often infantilizing) attribute. Similar definitions, but quite different in implication.

When the apocalypse comes I will of course let people use my stores of micro USB and VGA cables, but I’m gonna be real smug about it.

You know I always say “flanged mace” but what do I end up using 99% of the time? Cudgel ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Dope. Been dreaming of a completely energy independent farm for so long, and it’s getting closer and closer to feasible :)

WTF is Roblox?

I’m a sucker for a tortured soul 😍

Whoever proposes a coherent Quantum Theory of Homosexuality is gonna win a fields medal.

Food is going to be harder for Americans to come by in the near future. How much harder, hard to say. I don’t think it’s panic buy time, but it’s definitely “start stockpiling dry goods” time.

That’s the neat part, it is the default. the only way to opt out is to praise the leader loudly and often, and never in any way be critical of or inconvenient to the regime.

Nice, I appreciate the analysis. I’m still early enough on with Jellyfin that I’m still willing to ascribe every issue to user error but I think I see what you mean. But I keep telling myself that I will contribute to a large multi-dev OSS project at some point and still never have; contributing code in public is still kinda nerve-wracking. maybe if I have a selfish enough reason to fix something I’ll finally push through that 😆

when you got that one bounce pattern on one side of the screen so it finished bouncing halfway through and just slid off the screen 😘 🫴

spooky castle, or beach if I’m feeling really wacky.