Having children.

That’s a mistake I’m not going to repeat.

For interacting with kids, I always try to act like I’m interested in the things they’re talking about. It doesn’t matter if it’s their tiny life goals, or that cool rock they saw yesterday that wasn’t as cool as the rock they saw last month at the museum.

Nobody was ever interested in anything I have to say, and even after being with my wife for 6 years, she’s still trying to get me to talk more. Even I want to share something, my brain still says “they’re not interested, don’t bother” and I just keep it to myself. That’s probably why I like to comment on platforms like this so much, I can speak my piece and then move on and if anyone is interested in replying, I get a (usually) nice interaction with someone for a few minutes.

My wife’s dead sister used to scream at her children when they spoke because she “doesn’t want to hear [their] bullshit” and whenever her youngest would start giggling at something she was talking about she would scream at her to shut up because she’s annoying. The oldest was old enough to remember all of this perfectly, the youngest just has night terrors she can never remember.

My wife’s living sister just ignores her 8 children when they’re talking. Almost never even looks away from her phone or laptop when they talk and goes “yeah, uh-huh, mhmm, yep” and so on to make it seem like she’s listening. The oldest has caught on and has started saying off the wall stuff like “my head came off at school and the teacher kicked it into the trash” and things like that to see if her mother even notices. Usually she doesn’t.

It’s not enough to just be technically listening. You have to show interest. It’s not always easy, and when you have a lot on your plate it’s even harder, but you can sit and listen to babbling for a few minutes, it won’t hurt you, and you might make that kid’s day.

Han solo didn’t “shoot first”, he was the only one who shot, period.

Greedo didn’t shoot the wall (and miss a 6ft target sitting 2ft away), that was added (poorly) many years later for a special edition.

They changed the movie because in the interim years, George Lucas was feeling like it made Han Solo look less “noble” and more scoundrel-like.

I’ve started yelling “NO PRONOUNS” and “USE HE/SHE BECAUSE HE/SHE IS NOT AN OBJECT” at my conservative relatives and acquaintances who complain about pronouns and gender-neutral anything.

No, Deborah, the non-binary person who helped you figure out your phone today is not the cause of societies’ downfall, nor are they responsible for high grocery prices.

They complain about pronouns, but use them constantly. Clearly they don’t truly know what a pronoun is. They complain about gender neutral stuff, but use neutral language all the time.

So I’ve been loudly pointing out every time they do.

I’ve been uninvited from a lot of future family gatherings. oh nooooooooooo

I think it’s less “anonymity” and more “person isn’t afraid to suffer the potential immediate consequences of being a Fuckwad and thus says shit they would otherwise keep to themselves”

Fuckwads get brave behind a keyboard since the computer screen won’t punch them in the mouth for being racist.

Oh, so the US should have claimed Venezuela was US property, then they aren’t playing world police!

“Have you tried turning it off and back on?”

“yes, obviously that was THE FIRST thing I tried”

system uptime 582 days 23:59:12

The only thing there that should be censored. Fuck r*ddit.

If you have a rule that is interpreted as “you can’t ask questions about the rule” or “no questioning the rules” then it’s a fucking stupid rule.

I think it really is hard for the average person to grasp just how much the US has invested into warfare. Heck, I’d argue the absolute powerhouse of the military isn’t even weapons, it’s logistics.

It’s simply not even plausible that the US military industrial complex comes grinding to the proverbial halt over Venezuela.

If any other country tried to invade the US, they must first cross oceans to do anything effective, and with modern equipment, I doubt any stealth tech could slip in unnoticed, and everything else would be intercepted by the navy or, assuming the navy has largely become ineffective from being over-extended, national guard, coast guard, and just plain old home defense structures.

Keep in mind, several buildings around DC house anti-air sites and other defensive structures. They’d be last-resort type things though, home defense would be priority (or would be in any other administration) so you can bet in case of an attack, non military traffic would be grounded and jets would be scrambled, since no matter how bare-bones some squad in Caracas is, the personnel and equipment at home are fully stocked.

Unless the rest of the world completely cuts off the US, and honestly unless we actually strike at a major EU country I don’t see that happening, the US will keep chugging along, conscripting kidnapping people for the Orphan Grinding Machine. The 0.01% will never feel it, and will keep the poors fighting until the rest of the world turns their backs and nobody is left standing to fight.

I’m not singing the praise of the US military. This isn’t “American exceptionalism” here. This is shameful overspending on death machines while citizens starve. This is disgusting abhorrence for humanity that will result in loss of life on an unimaginable scale unless things change.

How many people would still be alive today if we had just decided to mind our own business after 1945? How many regions would be far more prosperous?

If you made it to the end of my rambling, I’m sorry for wasting your time. I might be a little baked right now. Thanks for reading though

(not disagreeing with anyone, simply making observations from experience)

A German zweihander sword weighs around 8lbs, a gallon of milk is around 7. A typical hand and a half sword around 4, and a rapier can be as light as 2lbs easily.

The issue isn’t really the weight though in my opinion, it’s where the weight is distributed.

A gallon of milk is concentrated in a pretty small package that you can hold close to your own center of gravity.

A sword is long and it’s weight, by design, is usually not close to the hilt of the blade. I’m not 100% sure on historic examples, but I try to keep the weight centered around 1/3 up the length of the blade on ones I make.

Practical upshot is that a lighter sword will flop around and stab people easier than a gallon of milk is dropped due to weight.

If you want a child to be accidentally dangerous, give them a sword. If you want them to be dangerous on purpose, give them a fixed blade knife under 7in.

I’ve been shot, I’ve been stabbed, I’ve had thousands of pounds of aluminum fall straight toward me and get caught in the last half meter, I’ve had semis clip my clothing while on a bike and send me flying, I’ve been pushed off the road by shitty carbrains who can’t share anything, and I’ve been told I have less than a week before most of my organs shut down.

I’ve thought I was going to die many times. And not once did I think anything other than “huh. So this is it”. Most of the I was laughing afterward, and I’m not 100% why except maybe a nervous response.

Ultimately I don’t know if I’m emotionally prepared to die, but there’s things I am absolutely willing to die for. I’d rather NOT die, but I’d say I am accepting of it.

Uhhhhhhh I’m not actually sure I answered your question, sorry.

I fully expect oil companies to convince governments to tax their citizens 150% to subsidize their new oil wells, just so they can continue looking for and opening new ones LONG after it ceases to be profitable.

It’s like conservatives and democracy. They’re okay with it as long as they can keep “winning” but when they can’t win anymore, they won’t change their behavior, they’ll stop using democracy.

I’d argue we already passed that point for both conservatives (in most major countries) AND oil company profits.

The cost of dealing with fossil fuels has been far outweighing the cost of using them, and has been for many many decades. If our species makes it that long, our grandchildren’s grandchildren’s great great great grandchildren will still be dealing with our mistakes.

The characters in the comic are terrorists.

Just like almost every depiction of arabs, muslims or people with brown skin in general

Uhhhhh I think that says more about what media you consume. I haven’t seen an Arab stereotyped as a terrorist since like 2015. In fact, most of the TV I watched for awhile was specifically portraying “US law enforcement sees all Middle easterners as terrorists and treats them poorly and it wasn’t any of them that had anything to do with the bad thing of the episode”

Some AAA game company releases a big-budget title that turns out to be a complete buggy mess (like MindsEye)

[FREE SPACE] contenders in here, but I like this one the best. The next one is a very close second.

I wish my brain were this nice to me.

Either you are okay with dark humor, or you aren’t.

Clearly a lot of people aren’t, and that’s okay. Humor is subjective.

I got an email like this a few weeks ago, and then about 2 minutes later I got a new email with the corrected replacements.

I replied with a screenshot zoomed in on the “candidate name” bit and left it at that. Didn’t even get a half-assed “lol sorry Bruh”

We also didn’t need multiple movies with Russians as the bad guys, yet here we are.

They were already doing so, and this wouldn’t excuse anything Russians have been doing even if Ukraine had bombed the fuck out of the place.

It’s definitely a false flag (in my opinion, not actual confirmation by anyone as far as I’m aware), but not a very good one.

Well, putin orchestrated apartment bombings decades ago, so this isn’t too much of a stretch.

I guess he didn’t actually want to damage it though, since locals say nothing happened. You’d think he’d at least set off a grenade in the front lawn to make it more convincing.