I at least like audio with the display.

Yeah, I really wanted to get rid of the smartphone because I waste so much time on it. I made a list of all the things I use it for and possible alternatives, and it was mostly doable, but I just can’t give up Discord. Got friends and family without cell service, especially the younger ones, and Discord is how they text.

Part of me is relieved because tracking my gym progress with pen and paper sounded like a pain. I’m always missing at least one item from my gym bag on a given day :P adding two more to rely on is a bad idea.

But still, the luddite life is so alluring…maybe someday I’ll be free of this magic rectangle that makes me sad.

I WISH reddit would end. I used to love it for the batshit insane personal stuff people wouldn’t share anywhere else. “I haven’t pooped in a month, AMA”, that kind of dumb voyeuristic crap.

It turns out that’s what everyone else loved too, and it’s profitable to have AIs write it so you can read it on YouTube for ad revenue. And y’all, it’s so stupid.

The most bizarrely specific scenarios pop up again and again, and people eat it up every time. “AITA for not giving my evil infertile sister my baby?” “My parents promised my brother and evil SIL my house without consulting me, AITA?” “My evil MIL was female aka evil, AITA?”

And then you have subreddits like BestOfRedditor updates, which you’d expect to curate these posts so the slop doesn’t come through, but in reality it’s a handful of power users obsessively following and reposting any post with “update” in the title or even just edits with the barest amount of self reflection. Posts have wild plotholes, like a 30yo being divorced for 15 years, and it’s considered “best of” as long as there’s an evil woman/autistic person/trans person, I guess.

But no, this AI shit means it will never end, because it gets numbers, and numbers matter more than anything else.

I’d travel more. I could never afford to leave the country of course but I’d like to see neighboring states or even just see more places in my own state. I want to know what it’s like to exist in the world before it’s gone.

If you can, try to get to bed an hour earlier tonight. I do that when I lose track of my sleep schedule.

Good idea, thanks! Especially about the collar, I bought hers back before I even considered leash training, so it’s not the most visible. It’d be helpful to have something reflective if she ever got away from me

Wasn’t it Terry Pr⍺tchett who specifically put in his will that all of his unfinished works (on hard drives) were to be crushed with a steamroller?

People were so upset about that and I understand why, but creators are so dehumanized and treated as entertainment machines, I think being able to release or withhold your work on your own terms is so important.

I still feel really weird knowing that Kafka’s writings were released against his wishes after he died. I can’t even say it wasn’t a net positive, and I know he’s long dead so it doesn’t really affect him, but it feels like people don’t want artists or writers to be able to keep anything to themselves. We’re not only entitled to everything they’ve already made, but everything they could potentially make. How many times have you heard people say “we were robbed” because a standalone work didn’t get a sequel, or a TV show didn’t get a dozen redundant seasons? Like if we like someone’s work, we’re owed more of it.

My cat is getting more adventurous on the leash, which is good news for her but bad news for me. She’ll only go on walks at night, and she wants to lurk around outside everyone’s windows and make me look like a total creep. I’m not trespassing, we never leave the apartment grounds, but it’s dark, my clothes are black, and my cat is black, so I’m worried if I hover too close to the building someone’s just gonna see a silhouette outside their window and get freaked out.

We also switched to a new antacid and she absolutely hates me for it, but she hasn’t thrown up this week :)

Took off work, family friend is out of town so I’m helping care for her mom. So basically I’m watching an elderly woman sleep with daytime talk shows playing REALLY loudly.

So is that phrase a joke? I see people talk about how dumb/obvious it is, but I always thought it meant “it’s always in the last place you [would have thought to] look”, as in a ridiculous place you’d never consider.

However my whole family is ADHD and used to setting things in dumb spots you’d never check.

I don’t think it’s from The Office. OP must have heard it there first and assumed.

But yeah, agreed. Had a coworker who was a little too comfortable making those jokes, including constant “that’s what she said” jokes. He turned out to be an entitled, abusive creep the first time a woman shut down one of those jokes. Now I see what a big red flag it is.

Not sure if you were going for answers more like “ice cream for dinner every night” or “not having glass bones and paper skin, not breaking my legs every morning and not breaking my arms every afternoon”.

My frivolous answer is a balcony. My depressing answer is a best friend and/or a sister close to my age who is nice to me. OR for my dad to die. OR to wake up and learn that my life was a dream and I’m someone else.

Idk, I was a depressing kid.

Extremely bad. Confronted my friend for always being a jerk to me, and he told me we were through. Changed his mind 24 hours later. I know he’s going through a lot but so am I and I feel so goddamn disposable. The stress is really getting to me.

I know there are actual problems in the world right now but I’m having trouble focusing on anything.

Am I missing something? This explanation actually seems reasonable. I swear I saw a couple people last election complain they were suddenly following Biden, because they were following the POTUS account.

I’m not trying to defend the fash propaganda that is Facebook, but also its users can be pretty dense.

Wow, this whole thing was stupid. I guess it makes Trump look like the good guy, if you’re an idiot, so thanks, Bytedance.

I understand. It’s true that you can’t pin all your happiness onto a hypothetical person, or even a real one, but it’s also hard to be happy when you’re lonely. Sometimes I do the things that used to make me happy and just wish I had a friend to do them with.

I guess that doesn’t help much, I just want you to know someone gets it. And Valentine’s Day doesn’t help because marketing is inescapable, and marketers want you to have a partner to buy their cheap heart-shaped shit for, so the result is that it makes lonely people like us hyper aware of our loneliness.

I do hope you find happiness and fulfillment, in whatever form it takes, not just the one that’s expected of us.

Thanks, that’s very encouraging ❤️ the gym is a nice hobby but I don’t think it’s the only or even the best route to self improvement, like for instance I feel the same way when people talk about reading regularly or making space for friends and partners.

Unfortunately therapist choices are actually pretty limited if I want one that’s paid for by my job. I went through the list and she was the only one who fit into my availability. I could still look elsewhere and get one mostly paid for by insurance ofc but it means seeing them less frequently.

Yeah, I really should. I mainly go to the gym because it’s hard to focus at home, especially with the cutest cat in the world always wanting on my lap.

Rough. I lost muscle mass over the holidays due to being swamped with work as well as on call to help with a family crisis. I’ve been trying to get back to the gym, but due to the snowstorm I only managed two days this past week. My dumb ass kept driving down there at 5:30am and they’d be closed 🤦 There’s supposed to be another storm coming up, too.

In therapy for relationship issues but I don’t know if it’s going well. My therapist claims I’m very self aware and I’m not asking for too much, but I don’t think that can be true because people in my life keep having these horrific meltdowns at me.

I haven’t talked to my friend in two weeks because I was going to ask my therapist how to approach him but we ran out of time. I should probably let him go but I hate to end on a bad note after everything we’ve done together.

Starting this week off with a hike with a new group, not sure if I really want to meet people ever again but I already RSVP’d so let’s go.

I’m sorry, that sounds miserable 💔

It’s not specifically for groceries but if you have google play services, I like TickTick for groceries and other lists. It’s easy to sync with Windows so if I remember something I need at a random time I can just jot it down on my nearest device. Plus there’s a home screen widget so it’s impossible to forget if I haven’t been grocery shopping yet.

I know that’s the least of your problems ofc, I hope you feel better soon.