The last panel reminded me of almost 20 years ago when the HPV vaccine first came available. Here in the US I remember the conservative backlash over it.

It wasn’t the same as today where conservatives reject the COVID vaccine because that’s how they prove to themselves that their freedom and bodily autonomy are intact or some shit. It was much more along the lines of how they like to see people suffer as long as they can tell themselves it was justified.

So it was basically “my daughter isn’t getting it because she doesn’t need it and isn’t a slut,” and of course they meant it in the way that anybody who IS a slut deserves to be punished with cervical cancer. Back then they didn’t always say the quiet part out loud.

As a Linux-only person I can totally acknowledge the need for Windows if you want to be a regular player of specific popular games. And maybe VR. I haven’t tried it recently after playing a ton of VR a few years ago.

But I can also point out the fact that I probably already own more games than I will ever finish in my adult life, and just in case I do there are also more games released every year that work on Linux that I could ever play. So if a game will not work in Linux even with proton and whatnot, my life is not negatively affected by that game not existing in my world. (I’ll admit I probably didn’t always think this way, but for a long time I still ran Windows and didn’t think about it either way)

Smelly you say? May I recommend you apply some Mint with Cinnamon to spruce up that computer of yours?

https://linuxmint.com/

Take the most popular (for now) distro in Ubuntu, remove the proprietary Canonical stuff that makes people say eww, and give the UI some polish and you basically have Linux Mint. And if you REALLY want to reject Ubuntu in its entirety, they do have LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition).

The first point is valid, but it only applies to you as the server admin and not the remote users. And honestly it was stuff worth learning for me, as somebody who is not on the IT/web end of things.

But the UI being janky? I don’t know about that. Static images of the screens may look better to you on the Plex side, and that’s just preference. But when it comes to lag, hitching, did that click register, having the server scan the media library, and just about every other performance thing I can think of, Jellyfin seems SO much better to me.

Well said!

And I will emphasize that this point:

just live for gaining wealth and respect

is part of the problem with the whole conservative strong male image before you even get to the relationship status. I was raised to think that way, not being explicitly told that but it being an ingrained part of the culture.

And even THAT is a subset of the value placed on conformity and pursuing the goals you are supposed to pursue rather than what brings you actual fulfillment.

This comment connects the dots so incredibly well compared with what I see from my angry conservative family.

They can’t imagine someone sincerely supporting a cause they care about and assume we all only do it for recognition among our peers, because that’s the way they use causes. To signal to the in-group that we are one of them.

Fuuuck, that is exactly the mindset I was raised to have, and which I very much had during my angry teenage years. Fortunately that was a long-ass time ago and in the decades since I’ve had everything from college to the internet to let me consider the thoughts and arguments of other less angry/hateful/bigoted/sociopathic people.

Fellas, is it gay to be into women who are also mammals?

Yeah, and I think that is tied to a subconscious need for good things to be permanent.

I think that truly internalizing the temporary nature of literally everything is an important part of getting to the mindset you’re talking about.

For sure, but there is a vast spectrum of what can constitute a “relationship.” There are many transactional relationships that are absolutely vital to accumulating resources, even for ordinary working people. But being necessary for survival doesn’t mean they are what will bring you fulfillment in life.

Notice the implied and unquestioned assumption that “life goals” means accumulating resources and not building relationships or contributing to society. In fact, it’s expected that personal relationships and societal responsibilities shall be neglected in the quest for resources.

I was just posting about this in the last day or two, but my ADHD brain also likes to keep music or a conversation going in my head. And I always sought out talk to listen to, like podcasts. But I have found that the right sort of music is a great tool to help occupy the ADHD brain and let my conscious executive functions like, do stuff.

I had to remind myself exactly what the point of cross multiplying is.

…it’s essentially just a label given to a specific set of algebraic operations. That it even has a name seems stupid to me. We shouldn’t focus on memorizing specific cases like this when understanding why it works will get you there just as quickly. Heck in the case of cross multiplying, I think it works against the interests of the students’ learning. It’s a shortcut that hides the fact that you’re multiplying both sides by both denominators, when “do the same thing on both sides of the equals sign” is algebra 101.

It probably depends on use case. There are plenty of situations where having numpad on the right makes perfect sense for right handed people.

But I’m an oddball who is very much right handed but uses the mouse left handed because my right wrist got so much wear and tear from early life data entry work.

It’s less about the y2k bug itself and more about the cultural phenomenon. It was everywhere, and it was huge, and then absolutely nothing happened. It was the best possible outcome AND the funniest possible outcome.

With stuff like that, it hits different when you live through it and it’s part of popular culture for years. It leaves grooves in the ole neurons.

In contrast I could think about how terrifying the Cuban missile crisis must have been. The fiery end of the world could happen at any moment and everybody knows it. And we even find out afterward that the world was basically saved by one Soviet service member. I can empathize with living through that, but since it happened long before I was born, I don’t have the vivid memories of the actual emotions invading my normal day to day.

Looking at it like a team sport is pretty silly, yeah, but I’m still willing to use Steam just the same. No billionaire or successful corporation is “my” people, but doing business with the ones that are decent to their customers seems fine.

Gaming generally involves paying money for proprietary software anyway, so that’s not a realm where the existence of any DRM is a showstopper for me personally. Any per-game DRM with heinous kernel-level shit such that it won’t run on Linux at all, that stuff is fine to just not exist in my world.

Yeah of course, it is by definition coping. Zero disagreement from me. But from my perspective of trying to find practical ways to achieve a fulfilling existence, good coping strategies can be a very positive thing. Bad shit will always be there, and we all have our own unique collections of it and unique internal reactions to it.

And the spirit of this from me is to encourage others to explore what’s possible, not to say “you should X.” We all have unique minds going through unique life experiences, so it would be silly for me to try to lay out some kind of roadmap to happiness like I know you (or any other people who might read this).

It took me several years to get my head to where it is now, and that includes ongoing medication. My goal is to help others however I can, so whether that is by providing possible techniques or just convincing them that a better existence might be possible, I will take whatever I can get. Incremental improvements are a good thing, even if tiny.

And indeed a big part of that is to explore what restrictions and burdens we place upon ourselves. If people in way worse conditions than us are happy, and people in way better positions than us are miserable, there must be some wiggle room where we can find a better outcome given our own unique inputs.

I found a lot of inspiration in the philosophy of the stoics and Buddhists, plus Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. That doesn’t mean I’m going to tell you to be stoic and control your emotions, because that would be some ignorant shit. But I think there’s a general idea there that’s worth encouraging others to consider, that you may be able to pilot your brain through the craziness of life in a way that suits you better.

And like I think I said before, the “decide to be happy” platitude is important but it is only the first baby step of a long journey. Genuinely changing your emotional state is not just a simple decision, but it may be possible over an extended period of time if you are consciously working towards it and making small beneficial decisions over and over.

If I may end with another platitude that is way easier said than done, we have to play the hand we’re dealt. Not because there’s anything good about that plan, and not because that is fair, but because that is reality. I found it difficult to find contentment with my life while also wishing my life was something else. And I know that probably sounds negative and discouraging as text on a screen, but think of it more like putting your effort towards practical improvements and not wasting your energy dwelling on things you cannot change or on the inherent unfairness of life. That includes acknowledging your privilege along with accepting your burdens.

I hope something in there made sense to somebody!

That’s one reason I threw in “to the extent that you can control it” because sometimes bad shit just happens.

But for what it’s worth, between 2019 and now I’ve had three financial disasters and my financial picture is way worse than it was. Debt free with emergency savings, used that up on a mess with the house, then lost my job twice over the Covid years after having been at the same place 15 years. But I’m also on the other side of it all where I have a job I like and I can start to rebuild.

But I also have a family and a ton of animals, so I’ve been holding all of that close. I wish you well!

Insert “that’s the neat part” meme.

I think of it like a positive nihilism. Nothing inherently matters, but existing and being self-aware is such a crazy thing that just being able to consider the question is an extremely lucky state to find yourself in. So to the extent that you can control it, why not actively choose to live a positive and fulfilling existence and be a source of positivity in the experiences of others?

After working through my personal shit for several years, the stereotypical circular platitudes you might expect to hear from a monk like “to be happy, choose to be happy” make sense in a whole new way. That kind of thing isn’t the single magic step to finding fulfillment like it might sound in the surface, but it is a critical first step that informs a million future small decisions.

It will only stare into YOU.

about a meter

Speaking metric already? This one has promising submissve qualities for you euro tops.