It sounds like we were similarly inquisitive children, perhaps to the point of making adults uncomfortable.

My European mother is the reason religion didn’t fuck me up worse than it did. I was also forced to go to church as a kid, but even within our own family there were differences in thought and opinion that still managed to exist in civil dinner table discourse. My mother seems to have gone through her own questioning process, it just didn’t take her to extreme atheism but rather she arrived at more of a mystical Abrahammic monotheism. When I was older, I fell into the trap of religion on my own (Evangelical Christianity) and it’s changed the course of my life significantly in both good and bad ways.

A decade to a decade and a half later I’m mostly over it. I’m comfortable with my current belief system and I live life openly and honestly with 95% of people I meet. If I had to describe myself I’d call myself a self-rolled Buddhist-Atheist.

I’m not envious of those Christians with enough of a conscience to realize what’s going, but who are reliant on “American Christians™” for their community, support, spirituality/philosophy/introspection. They have difficult and painful decisions ahead of them. You can only ignore your conscience for so long, but the first to defect will be shunned and hated and will likely lose their entire social circles. That happened to me. They will also be susceptible, as we all are, to similar tactics and abuses as those doled out by their former religion. You don’t leave and suddenly become a mastermind at spotting abuse of power and become immediately immune. If anyone reading this falls into that category, I would recommend finding a nice, non-religious hobby where you see people from different walks of life on a regular basis. Bicycling groups, social dances, gardening collectives, etc. People are pretty nice outside of the bubble. You’ll be okay.

I’m a Buddatheist who grew up with both cultural Catholicism and later Christian Evangelicism.

I like how this hints at the nature of the self. If I leave someone behind am I not also leaving myself behind?

For me, ethical acts are those that increase the freedom of the self and others. We all suffer. That’s a fact of life. If we dissolve our concept of the self and acknowledge our link to others and the world itself we can see ourselves more as threads going through human experience. If we are kind to ourselves and “others”, we have a better chance at reducing that suffering.

Imagine the time a stranger forgot their wallet and you paid for their coffee. A version of that experience could still exist in that person’s mind long after you die. It could get blended with other experiences and reinterpreted. It could be told as a story to a friend who was inspired by the act. The cascading effects of that person being properly caffeinated on that day could have world changing effects. In a similar way, I carry the shared experiences of my own ancestors and even strangers who have shared their stories with me. They are still alive as a small part of me because my true self is humanity or even some animating life force of the universe or something like that and the name that people call me just refers to the limited perspective and incomplete view I have of existence. Essentially I see existence as blinders limiting my perspective like a race horse, but the true self is a satellite view of the track. When I act, I do so based not only on my experience, but the collective experience of every perspective and experience that has been conveyed to me in every way, but I am still one human body, in physical space, subject to time. I hope that when I die, those blinders will be lifted and I’ll exist as pure conscious perception of everything that ever was is and will be. Able to see through anyone’s eyes, in any time. To feel any and every feeling felt my an animal or human. To view the entirety of existence as a completed masterpiece from outside time itself.

You can probably see why I like the Buddhists.

I find that when you acknowledge the interconnection of things compassion becomes easier.

I hope that people rediscover that within themselves and others.

Last night’s Southpark kind of hinted at this topic a little bit. I’m curious to see where they take it, but I won’t post any spoilers here because I don’t know who has seen it.

I started my Linux journey as a poor high school college student and while I got hand-me-down windows machines at home, I worried about breaking them fiddling with things beyond my knowledge level. A budget basement eeePC became my workbench and I started tinkering. I had to drive to the next city to find one in stock. Today the gas would cost more than the computer. :-D

I’d still be running the eee but it got put in the closet when many distros dropped 32 bit support.

Yup, I just namedrop Lemmy and don’t explain unless people ask. Usually then the explanation is simple and about how I’ve chosen not to use Reddit for ethical reasons.

I don’t have he data to back this up, so take it with a shaker full of salt:

The Psychopathic Owners: People with the individual net worth of small countries who have already assembled ownership or at least control over of the majority of everything under themselves. Have enough power to choke out everyone else if anyone steps too far out of line. The law does not apply to them and they break it with impunity. No empathy, often self-deleduded and think they’re Gods gift to the world.

The Big Boy on the Playground: This person has accumulated enough wealth to feel superior to the average poor person. They may think they’re rich and can do whatever they want, so they make good fall-guys for the truly rich. They often have outward signifiers of wealth, but are blinded by the ego trip of being daddy’s favorite.

The Poor Ignorant PoS: Most people, this category is broad and blends smoothly into the one above it with no one delineation to separate the two.

I choose an unlimited supply of cell-phone minutes so I can say “told you so” to all the apocalypses deniers.

The cables seem to increase exponentially don’t they? First, you have a few computers and a half dozen cables powering things and linking everything together, then you add a couple servers, maybe a second nic on your NAS, and another switch or two since things are now further from the router. Suddenly your office looks like a giant bowl of spaghetti covered in prop 65 stickers.

I think they’d love it if all us poor’s died of preventable disease, violent crime, died in their wars, starved to death in food deserts, or willingly subjugated ourselves to become their servants and concubines. If only the rich are left, then essentially the game starts over again.

The enlightened poors want to remove the top 10% of the pyramid; the rich don’t care what happens to the bottom 90% as long as they get to keep growing their money, power, and control.

If we stop buying their products, stop working in their businesses, stop consuming their media, and start reappropriating their assets, the balance of power would shift very quickly.

Having said that, I’m a hypocrite who bought something off Amazon in the last 3 months, works for a megacorp, and continues to use big tech in many aspects of my life out of convenience. I’ve maybe made 20% of the changes I need to make to feel happy about my level of ideological purity and I have an advantage because I understand computers, philosophy, and politics better than most normies in my life.

If you are knowledgeable about something like clothing, fine crystal, tools, trading cards, and have a couple hundred bucks in seed money, you can use your expertise to buy undervalued items at garage sales, estate sales, and thrift stores and resell at market price. You do need the knowledge though because there’s a lot of worthless junk to sift through. It’s not truly passive, but if you stop when you see garage sales, you will find good flippable items every now and then.

I’ve found my wallet is often where I first looked, just covered in other junk so I didn’t see it. Also, if you drive, check the crack between the seat and the door. Hope that helps!

I could probably learn a lot from the thread. If I don’t clean it while it’s still warm, I tend to resort to coarse salt, a bit of oil, and a scrubby sponge. Either way, it’s not easy for me to clean, especially after eggs.

This is as good a theory as any. I also thought of range and township in the American west. Every time I end up on a road called Meridian, Baseline, Township, or something similar, I’m instantly reminded. Perhaps researching how they measured and recorded land historically would get me closer to an answer.

I am genuinely confused. Of course it has to do with tourism money somehow, but tourism money or not, this seems like a really weird road layout. Never once in Cities Skylines or real life have I ever thought to design a neighborhood like this. Why so long and skinny? Why not a rectangle or a shape bounded by major roads? Having said that, what is this obvious answer that my dumb ass is missing?

Yes, I spotted that as well. The squiggles are very unique. In regards to the straight ones. The other spot I saw stuff like this was in Brazil. Long roads with super short side streets coming off of a major highway, parallel, but not connecting. How odd, the fact that they don’t connect East-West is the weirdest part.

I’m a tall, straight man and squarely middle class so your mileage may vary.

Lean into the discomfort. Discuss it openly with people. My best relationships were with woman who I was already able to talk about sex stuff with without turning bright red. This sounds like it is a hard place to get to, but that’s the religious conditioning. Many people are open to talking about sex if they’re comfortable and it’s an appropriate environment. Not everyone feels the shame and worry because not everyone went through this.

Consider talking to a therapist or counselor if it’s impacting your ability to function in the world how you want to. Churches are just “good” cults and some use very sketchy, manipulative tactics. It’s not your fault you got sucked into it, and it’s not too late to unlearn those things. Don’t throw out any good things you got from church, I’m great in front of a crowd thanks to my time with religion.

Lastly, whips and chains may be scary, but some alternative lifestyle communities have classes or discussion groups that can show you the depth and variety of sexual expression without committing to actually participating and in a structured environment which can be a HUGE stress reliever for people.

You might find some of those influences in PJ Morton’s music. Sample: https://youtu.be/2F9pL06IC8k

C2C has a really cool electro-gospel song that doesn’t have overly religious lyrics, though it captures the vibes excellently: https://youtube.com/watch?v=tvY7Nw1i6Kw

Other gospel/southern vibes: https://youtu.be/xNWhiXxdbWk

Agreed, and friends are great. To expand even further: The fact that romance/friendship exists as a dichotomy rather than a spectrum or a pick-and-choose DIY relationship grab bag is testament to the way many people expect their partner to be their person, their one and only, when in reality we should be in the supportive community of friends and want the same for our partners. I want my partner to have friends because I can’t put up with their shit 24/7 … and vice versa!

There’s also a stereotype about the friend zone, but even as a straight dude I’ve dated a few friends. The key is to date people you like as your friends, not to pick your “friends” so you can get close enough to date them. It’s friendship+, not friendshipOR.

I don’t know if I could have a romantic relationship without some sort of sexual feelings involved or at least a potential for them.

• A relationship is platonic if I want to spend time with someone doing things but don’t want to cuddle, have sex, or kiss.
• A relationship is sexual if sex is the focus, though friendship may be present.
• A relationship is romantic when both sex and friendship are focused.

Let me just say that this is my answer and there is no right answer. It’s more important to clearly communicate your desires and ask other people about theirs.

These semi-arbitrary lines exist to help you learn to paint, but ultimately, you and your partner(s) are the artists of your relationships and if you’re painting with the right person(s) you can paint however you want, though you should act ethically and respect other’s self-determination.

I run a beelink mini, not the weakest one, not the most powerful one, and it handles docker containers and VMs fine. I don’t have a tkn of integrated storage, but rather this machine handles apps while a separate NAS does all the file storage. Most I ever had running was 2 VMs and a handful of negligible docker containers but I still had plenty of ram and CPU to spare. I also think the minisforum stuff looks good. Their n5 pro nas just came out and would have made a good server with room to grow. I decided against it because I have parts and I want to use them :-) so the beelink is holding down the fort while I Frankenstein together a rig from my old gaming PC in a huge case that will host all my apps and less critical media. Home assistant which will stay on the beelink because it needs high availability. I’ve been curious how the lowest priced minisforum models would fare.