You need to start doing these things often enough that the anxiety starts to subside. You are anxious because these experiences are new for you, but do them enough and they will become routine.

Remember how you felt before you went to the theater? You weren’t even sure you could do it. But you did, even if it felt weird during or after. That’s ok. That’s real progress. You did the thing even though you were afraid. Now you know you can do it, and it will likely feel less weird next time. Keep building progress slowly, and remember it’s ok to feel anxious.

Why the fuck are you censoring “French”?

Been to Portland recently. There’s plenty of neighborhoods where you can walk around safely. There’s one small area of downtown where there’s a lot of homeless, and you probably want to stay away from the ICE building for obvious reasons, but other than that it’s like any other city.

Some people are just… irrationally afraid of the homeless. Most of them will not try to rob you or even bother you, but it is a good idea if you find yourself in an area like that, to pay attention to your surroundings and not get too close to anyone, just in case they start swinging their arms around wildly or something.

I have. LG replacement parts. Not only was there no tracking number, you had to download the app AND “connect it to your email” in order to track the package. No mention of what exactly that meant or what level of access the app would have to my emails. I assume it would have to scan all my email to even find what it was supposed to be tracking. That’s a big no.

The photos with the GOPoversight watermark look AI-ified to me. Their heads look too big for their bodies, which makes them look like children. Wide heads combined with Bill’s oddly long and narrow hand… Guess this slop is just standard procedure for the GOP now.

That’s not blocking them from tracking you. You’re only blocking yourself from seeing the ads they’ve chosen to show you based on the tracking they’ve already done.

People from DC also tend to say Ore-GONE instead of Ore-GUN, as it should be pronounced.

Pretty sure they have debunked both of those. Crunches put a lot of strain on your lower back, and it’s also not great to use ab muscles to suck it in all the time. You’re compressing your gut instead of developing the correct back muscles that should be holding you up.

Getting tired of cliche comments means you’re stupid now?

Craigslist still exists though. We could just… bring it back by using it again. As a bonus, it’s not an app so it doesn’t track you.

I think you’re giving Campbell way more credit than he is generally given by the writing community at large. Yes, that is one way to write a story, but it’s certainly not the only method taught. For example, slice-of-life stories are completely acceptable, however it is harder to get some of the nuance across to new writers. The hero’s journey is an easy starting point, that’s all. And I really don’t think Campbell was trying to say that’s how everything should be. He was making observations about what he already saw in popular western media.

I don’t understand your seeming conflation of advertising and art, which seems like a separate point from your criticism of Campbell. Advertising does not control art, nor vice versa. It makes more sense to look at things through the lens of money: art can be basically free to create (writing, drawing, street art are all pretty cheap). Anyone can do it. Now, something like making a film is not cheap. It can cost millions of dollars, and not many people have enough lying around to do so without getting a return on that investment. In other words, film has to make money. They know the hero’s journey will sell because it is easy for the average Westerner to digest and enjoy. So you see a lot more hero’s journey stories on the screen than you do in the wide world of books, which can afford to be more experimental or art-driven. Someone like Banksy isn’t worried about finding a rich buyer to recoup the cost of his stencils and paint. Would you agree?

Advertising is a different beast altogether, and I’m not sure why you would criticize it for not being art. It was never supposed to be that.

Why would people oppose fiber?

Well it can be trickier than you might think. The general advice is to get 30 grams a day. I tried that, and I ended up having to overeat by quite a bit to achieve that number. Then I realized that number was not meant for me, it was for men who are at least twice my size. I probably only need 15 grams a day, which I was probably already getting. But that “30 grams” recommendation is everywhere. There’s also two different types of fiber, and you might need more of one than the other depending on your individual biome. I think most people would benefit from a more tailored recommendation or plan.

I also have a theory that fiber does not interact well with IBS, and that there may be some number of folks who don’t know they have it. Personally, I can’t digest leafy greens at all. I would eat them if I could, because it often feels like some personal failure and that I’m going to die early since I can’t. But if the undigested bits get stuck in my intestinal pockets, I end up in the hospital. 🤷

Depends on the state. Usually you’re not allowed to materially misrepresent the home, meaning you can Photoshop stuff like the sky or the furniture (things that change irl) but not the actual walls or structure. In my state, if someone reports you for adding a random staircase or window that isn’t actually there, you could be fined up to $5000. I’m not sure how many agents would care enough to report it though.

They saw a party balloon, panicked, tried to shoot it down with lasers but failed to inform the FAA what they were doing (it might have even been the FAA doing it which is even more hilarious), so the FAA panicked again and shut down the airspace. Just pure incompetence all around.

I don’t normally watch football, but it was a pretty good game. Seattle Seahawks against the New England Patriots. The Patriots make it to the superbowl often and have had a reputation for playing dirty at times. The Seahawks barely lost to them a few years ago, so this was a very nice comeback, also it’s only their second time winning the superbowl. They put up a fantastic defense and for a while people thought the Patriots wouldnt get to score any points at all.

To be fair, most cities are still like the ad. Yeah, there’s an undercurrent of tension that wasn’t there two years ago, but the majority of areas are not seeing ICE activity. People are going to work and school and not talking about this stuff. It’s crazy how people can compartmentalize.

I don’t think they’ll ever have enough gravy seals to deploy everywhere at once. Think about how many people they would need just to cover all fifty capitol cities (which typically aren’t even the biggest cities in the state). They can only patrol one or two large cities at a time, it seems, and look how much pushback they get.

It’s all over the media, and it should be, but don’t look at photos like that and think it’s on every street corner or even every city in the US.

At this point it’s a bit ridiculous if you don’t have one. 20 years is at least three cycles of ID renewals, so people have had plenty of chances to make the switch.

Leaders We Deserve is trying to primary establishment Dems in safe seats with actual progressive candidates.

Washington is doing the same, at least with law enforcement jobs. It would be nice to extend that to any state-funded job.

I once got a question that asked how many times you’d lied about calling in sick at previous jobs. It was multiple choice and 0 was not an option. Instead of lying, I just exited the application. I didn’t really want to work at Red Robin anyway.