It was lined with plastic.

Ah. Gotcha. For some reason I was stuck on what I presume is the other lawyer giving a “sit” command. An unintentional red herring, perhaps.

Maybe it’s obvious, but I genuinely don’t get this one.

That’s exactly it, yep. I’m well over apologizing at this point.

And yeah, I also moved back home for a while after college, and it was a bad time. Plenty of good, but plenty I’m glad to leave behind. Let us all strive to be better people than our parents were, I say.

I’m glad you’re out, and I hope you’re doing well. Stay safe out there!

Yeah, I’m conflicted about my family enough as it is. But push comes to shove, I’m fine on my own at this point.

Ah, that’s the thing. He never demanded an apology. He sulked, and it was others in the family who learned about it (through either me or him) that told me I was wrong and to apologize.

I’ve never been one to back down from a conflict I thought was worthwhile. It wasn’t until I was literally a married adult when an in-law (whom we love dearly) told my SO about how my family “sweeps things under the rug”. When my SO told me later, I was like “nah… but wait do we though?” That led to a lot of revisiting old memories and realizing how conflict avoidant we really were (except for me, lol).

Yeah, if either of my parents demanded an apology from me for anything right now… they have some choice words coming.

My dad was smart when I was growing up. He is smart now.

But he’s so entrenched in the worst right wing political lunacy, and always has been, that I’ve rarely viewed him as someone to imitate morally.

I blew up at him as a teen over the Iraq War. He never once justified his position in anything remotely resembling a reasoned argument, but I hurt his feelings, so I had to apologize to him about it. That family dynamic has never really changed, so I just don’t talk to him anymore.

Ah yeah, that’s certainly a real possibility. We just gotta do our best out here. Best of luck!

On Vyvanse now (diagnosed recently in my late 30s), and I haven’t had any sleep issues.

Maybe they started you on too high a dose?

In any case, I’m glad you found something that works for you!

This is giving Shel Silverstein vibes.

Man, I still really struggle to understand​ how we can reliably age-gate anything on the Internet without sacrificing privacy for everyone.

IRL you can just show your govt issued ID, but there’s virtually zero privacy risk doing so. Bouncers don’t register ID scans, typically, and they’re just one person. The govt doesn’t know you went to that club or drank at that one bar, unless they’re actively surveilling you.

But if I needed to identify myself as an adult online, simply by virtue of how digital systems work, that probably requires checking against a govt database, and that database will keep logs, and now Trump knows I went to Pornhub, and likely also exactly what I watched or searched for.

Maybe I’m dumb, but I really don’t know any way around this sort of thing.

I remember reading a Haidt article for an ethics class in grad school. The analysis felt… underwhelming? It’s been too long to remember the article, but I think it was something about the “morality” of conservatives being not worse but different than liberals (limited to the US, iirc). I just remember reading it and going… yeah conservative morality functions differently. It’s also just demonstrably worse, though, even based on what the article was focusing on?

That class was weird though. Mostly just a bunch of folks going,“yeah well this is what I care about” and disagreeing with each other with seemingly no intention whatsoever to try and evaluate or engage with one another.

Which Jacob Geller thing are you referencing? I love a good beardy boy video essay.

Just one of those things kids learn at church, at least in the areas I grew up in. Kinda like the “cool S” but not quite as universally iconic.

OC Supertones and the Insyderz??? I didn’t even bother mentioning those, but hell yeah those were my absolute jam!

I’m a former Christian, if that counts.

DC Talk - the album Jesus Freak is peak Christian Rock, but the earlier, hokey rap stuff was fun, too.

Five Iron Frenzy - ska band that I absolutely adored as a teen. Saw them live at a reunion tour a few years ago (as an atheist) and had a great time.

Audio Adrenaline - more Christian Rock, just a good all around band.

Relient K - really fun and melodic punk/alternative. Went more rock than punk over time, but always solid quality. They made one of the better Christmas albums on offer, too.

And just for fun, try singing Amazing Grace to the tune of Gilligan’s Island!

Beats me! But I’m unbothered, so no worries.

I’m weirdly okay with this?

I get most of my gaming on the cheap on PC, so I feel fine splurging for the occasional Nintendo title.

But as with all things, no reason to buy something you don’t want to pay for. If enough people can’t or won’t pay $80, then so be it.

I quite like Discord, but I really only use it for it’s original purpose - a place for groups of friends to hang out, play video games with voice chat, and maybe watch shows/movies together. For these purposes, Discord is great!

I have found very little value in how Discord gets used for anything and everything else - forums for video games, support channels for businesses, 1000+ member communities, etc etc. All of those use cases feel better served through traditional websites and forums… but it’s so much easier to set up a Discord server for the average person it has turned into a weird default.

In that regard, fuck Discord.

Does India particularly differ? I think nods still mean yes and shakes still mean no there. They just also have the “noncommittal head bobble” that tends to confuse people outside India (and, presumably, Pakistan).