Yup, all boils down to faith in the currency. For something like the dollar, it’s backed by faith in the US government. For something like Bitcoin, it’s backed by faith in the resilience of the blockchain and the value buyers place on it. Emperor Norton minted his own currency which was accepted all around San Francisco based purely on the fact that people accepted it.

I’d say average about -5. Verbal, physical, and emotional abuse was the norm. My mom was fine, but due to the age gap she was functionally more like a big sister. My dad must’ve been going for the high score on the Dark Triad.

School was a fun one; I was regularly held out of school to the point I was nearly kept back multiple times for truancy alone, at one point my grandmother had to threaten to call CPS because I wasn’t even enrolled in school at all. Every day I’d have so many chores that homework was impossible, and that lack of structure kicked my ass in college. Bit of a mindfuck to constantly be told that school is for stupid conformists, and still get punished for bad grades. It’s a good thing I’ve got a great memory and phenomenal test-taking skills, or I never would have passed a single class.

Socialization was fun too. Between frequent moves and the pile of chores on my list, I didn’t have the opportunity to make many friends. Tried to get into Boy Scouts and sports to get some kind of social life, but those were for stupid conformists too. Combine that isolation with my dad’s attempts to turn me into his shadow, I grew up real weird and isolated. People think I’m sociable now, but that required years of focused work. And I’m still pretty weird.

Character and values, ho boy. I wasn’t exaggerating with “Dark Triad high score”. He literally tried to become a Latin American island dictator, it was a lifelong project for him. I was taught the values of doing anything you can get away with, exploiting rules, lying all the time to get what you want, emotional manipulation, and countless other Machiavellian, narcissistic, psychopathic behaviors. Fortunately, my grandparents were much more moral and ethical, so it was a bit easier to deprogram myself on that front.

I won’t even get into all the other little things, but I think anyone from an abusive household can tell you that all the little things can often have a more serious long term effect than the big ones. Daily whoopings suck, but they go away when you move out. Not so much a lifetime of being trained to treat every conversation like a competition.

On the bright side, I’m very resilient now. I joke to people that i never get stressed because my brain doesn’t produce the stress chemical, but really I just coped with so much stress growing up that none of the minor daily stresses register at all.

So yeah, others have definitely had it worse, -5 feels about right.

I’ll go further, and say the text of the 2nd Amendment implies gun owners should be members of a well-regulated militia. I think every State Guard should accept anyone who applies, and give them basic training. In exchange for being part of the reserve, and passing firearm classes, you can keep and bear arms.

If you don’t want to be part of a well-related militia, no guns. If you can’t pass firearm training, no guns.

Yes, I gave far finders.

Skweezy Jibbs is a national treasure

314253 is acceptable for lefties.

Yeah shrooms are way more likely to give you the ability to think through legitimate problems than generate spontaneous bad ideas. Still though, give it some thought when you come down.

I think putting myself down does help me. I was raised by a narcissist intent on making me their reflection. I put myself down to counteract 18 years of narcissistic conditioning. Granted, if you weren’t raised to be a narcissist you probably shouldn’t do it. I’m an edge case.

My baseline circadian rhythm doesn’t let me get sleepy until the sun starts coming up. In a bygone era, I would’ve been the guy tending the fire and watching over the camp until the early birds got up. In the modern era, night shift jobs are generally terrible. I strategically drink to fall asleep at a somewhat reasonable hour, so I can participate in modern society.

Guess that kind of depends on whether you’re going for “sublime serene harmony” or “the unfathomable might of God”. I think the church kinda nailed it on both fronts, choirs for the first and pipe organs for the second.

This scene from Mr. Nobody is a great example of the first, which seems a bit more what you’re going for.

Been-a-while On-the-pot

Two points:

“I have to go to a place” actually has its own semantic implications. It’s a modern construction, deliberately vague to imply intentional mystery or semi-sincere shame.

“How flies the time” ironically makes the speaker sound more well-versed in English, like a stuffy old professor.

His logo slaps

The rain falls down without my help, I’m afraid. And my lawn gets wet, though I’ve withheld my consent

Oh for sure, but not free

Uh, internet costs money

I wanted to be a mechanical engineer growing up, I was always playing with Lego and building little mechanisms. Then I had a physics teacher who got into the subject of physics vs engineering. He told the class about his brother who was an engineer for some electric motor company, and how his team would spend 18 months fiddling with the parameters of a motor, and they’d throw a party if they increased efficiency by 0.5%. I couldn’t disagree with his assessment that that sounded boring and soul-draining.

It sounds like the perfect job for a certain kind of person, and I am not that kind of person.

Everybody poops, and if they don’t they’re an android

First of all, licorice is good actually, though black jelly beans are trash.

One time I bought olive flavored gummies from the Asian market because I love olives and I was curious. Absolutely horrible, didn’t even finish one.

The top RPG? That’s a bit ambitious. But I’m surprised it isn’t more popular.