Media has taught us that a first date involves drinking in a bar or restaurant, in part because of movie shorthand. (Dinner and drinks is a date, forget the rest of the evening, we just set the stage to imply the rest.)

As many others have said, your normal is your normal. Don’t let society or Hollywood pressure you into dating ‘their way’.

I met my wife on a date at a coffeehouse near here house. We then went to a pizza place across the street. No alcohol involved, but I did bring a board game into the restaurant with us.

Better funding of higher education, lower costs of living in general for lower income people. Better public transportation as well.

That tries to at least address each of your concerns.

Believable shower thought… wanting to go back to bed.

The cryptocurrencies affected will just implement AI to circumvent these regulations.

Words and concepts have no meanings any longer. Fake AI money is the future.

I’d give it a shot, but I honestly leave my home only once a week, which makes these types of games less appealing to me.

I almost never travel either.

I’d still play a game that let me use/invest in local resources generously, and unlock more areas with travel.

I’d never be competitive in such a game, but I’m comfortable with that.

What works for you, works for you.

It may be possible to slowly wean yourself off of these behaviors that are worrying you. If it’s down to once a month, there isn’t as much of a jump to zero times a month, but maybe sometime. And then once it’s been a year, congratulate yourself for that and keep going.

Habits are hard to break and much easier to fall into. But if you are more conscious of these decisions, it all becomes a little bit easier with time.

That kind of mindfulness is a skill that is hard to develop, but your post leads me to think you’re already on your way.

That’s a tactic I’ve seen widely used, especially by the assholes we are talking about.

Words have meaning to us, and fascists love that because they are not beholden to any truth at all.

Ah, then I guess I don’t know how to interpret that.

Maps cannot answer that question.

Genealogy could, but has its downsides.

Whatever happened, it’s more valuable now.

Stewed beets are delicious, and beet greens are quite tasty too. A nice addition to any garden.

Now that is a good shower thought!

I’m someone who builds up earwax easily, leading to infections.

For the last decade, I’ve been regularly scraping it out with metal spoons. I’m even used to accidentally tapping my ear drum.

Last time I was at my doctors he commented (to the intern in training) that my ear canals are well sloped and naturally clean themselves, and I corrected him. Glad to know he didn’t observe damage I’ve been causing.

A terrible publication and source.

Love a vague headline that tells me nothing about how to think.

Edit: I meant but about how to think, oh well.

Fascists always eat each other.

The paradox of tolerance.

You cannot tolerate those who will not tolerate others. Those acting in bad faith will always work to tear down.

Hour by hour, my job evolved from taking calls from clients who owed us money, to then answering questions from agents who weren’t as skilled at it as I was.

In the process of being promoted, I was asked to join a daily meeting of over 100 people talking about the issues affecting our department.

Once in a great while, something came up in that meeting that gave me the heads up to prevent chaos in our department and stress to members.

There’s a whole shitload of cogs turning in modern corporations. There’s also a huge danger of people leaving and nobody understanding why the cogs are there.

I don’t know the why but the first thing I said when I found out was “Polonium”.

When I was in my mid 30s, a cute young 24 year old online started hitting on me.

Turned out she had three kids with three different dads and the most recent one was in jail for domestic abuse.

I still almost went for it though. Problem is my life was in the shitter and couldn’t even afford to fly down or for her up to see me.

We were ‘together’ for about six months when I wised up and broke it off.