Every faction is the bad guys, it’s individuals (or sub groups like the salamanders) within the fiction that get to rise above their faction and be good guys.

I’m not yet 30 and I think it’s good applicable advice. I think you can actually practice a lot of these skills by making friends. The difference between romantic and platonic isn’t that big.

So I think the question could be refined a little. Eye contact helps build connection between people, but it’s not the only piece of the puzzle. Maybe a better question is “'How do I communicate more empathetically?”

There’s another question; “How do I let someone know I’m interested?” This question is related to the first in that trying to get close to another person (being vulnerable with each other) and communicating your feelings is how you let someone know your interested.

TLDR: get to know them and tell them you’re interested. If they say they’re not interested you can probably still be friends since you already got to know each other. Empathy and humility/vulnerability are key in building relationships.

I have a couple of friends in law enforcement (NYPD & state Police). They tend to be best cops around, one of them is being sent to be a trainer so he can get some bigger promotions.

You got to ask yourself and maybe them if they are a good person. All cops are bad because of what the system does to them. But who they are in spite of what that system is doing says more about who they are as a person.

Chances are they’ll have edgy jokes, but you’ve been on the Internet long enough to end up here, so I’m sure you can navigate that.

Remember conservatives hate liberal arts colleges because people who are exposed to diversity are more tolerant of it.

Assuming it’s the US

• set up a fund to provide free school lunches until the government provides them
• give grants for people to set up housing co-ops
• hire my own army of Russian trolls (they do not need to be Russian, I am inclusive to all trolls) to fracture conservative unity/support progressive
• buy up some social media companies. (YouTube would be best, but I don’t the 300 billion is enough) make the algorithm progressive
• whatever is left over goes to renewables and conservation efforts

There was a lot more I missed when I switched, can’t think of anything now. I was going to joke that I miss being 19. But eh, I’m doing better now than I was then.

I know a few trans or nonbinary folks. They either go by he, she, or they. I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t. Then again I live in a weird progressive rural community.

But if someone asks me to refer to them a particular way, sure what not? It means more to them than it means to me.

Are you a troll?

I think one of the problems is women who die because they have a miscarriage and can’t get medical support. This is something completely avoidable, but the laws are catching these people in the crossfire.

Emergency situation: you’re in the UK, it’s breakfast and you need something to put on your toast.

Sabayon Linux. I’m not sure if it’s still releasing updates, the main website is dead. It was based on Gentoo and later funtoo, but had a package manager of precompiled binaries. You could still use emerge if you wanted to. Definitely a weird and interesting distro

Blend OS is trying to do the declarative nixos thing but with an arch base. That’s pretty cool.

ClearOS was Intel’s attempt at an immutable os. From what I remember it was really fast.

Edit: actually it clear Linux not clearOS. Edit: also clear Linux is stateless. I don’t know, there’s a lot about it I don’t understand

Oh man I feel this when people ask for directions. Because I know how to get somewhere, but I also forget a lot of steps along the way.

A slack line? Maybe over budget

Stuff to build skate features, or wax for waxing curbs

If he lives by snow, a park rake is super cool for building snow features. It like makes a perfect jump for you.

G-form (knee)pads maybe lame, but by far the most comfortable protection I’ve ever worn.

A knife, 10 year old me would spend hours widdling sticks, trying to make wooden swords and stuff

3d printed nerf guns are amazing now. If you have access

Me neither!

I think you can just be grateful to have or experience something. Like you can’t be grateful to anyone for a full moon, but you can be grateful that you saw it.

Comfort can be about how you look. I have some clothes that are super comfortable, but if I wore them out in public I would be arrested because I look like a drug dealer. Find something comfy in the way that it reflects how you want to be seen

I mean, looking like you know what you’re doing, looking confident doesn’t mean you have to dress plain.

Also I am sure gym bros will complement you on your body. Kind of like how as a straight man I only get compliments on my facial hair from other men. Look for validation from your friends not randos

You’re probably in a better place than most severely depressed people because you think that you can get better! Probably the best thing to do is keep a growth mindset and try to learn as much as you can about depression. Getting over depression is a journey.

Lots of other people have said running & friends, those things help me. But recently/now I am depressed and running 40 miles a week and seeing my friends regularly.

What’s a really cheap solution? Pirate some bibliotherapy books! Feeling good by David D. Burns is older, but I’m reading it right now and it seems like a really solid CBT book. I would also recommend “Adult children of emotionally immature parents”. It helped me understand why I am the way I am

The hardest part for me is noticing when my thoughts are turning situations from good or neutral into bad situations. Paying attention to your thoughts in an objective way is hard! But some sort of mindfulness practice can help.

Journaling can be useful! You can train your brain to look for good things by writing out 3 good things that happened or you did every night.

That only makes it cooler

Not a fan of indie games are you?

Baba is you, is a pretty original puzzle game. I’m not really into factorio, but it made tower defense cool again. There’s lots more that are weird and interesting like brigadore, airships conquer the skies, cruelty squad, superliminal.

As far as I remember, portal was a mod or indie game that valve picked up because they thought the idea was really good. It was really good.