“Tapping me along” made me imagine someone tapping a golf ball. Nudging it, but not making a big swing, it could be indicative of a subtle influence.

Trump may not know a lot about a lot, but he spends enough time golfing to potentially use a metaphor from it. On the other hand, I’ve never golfed (except the mini kind), so I could be way off.

Shortly after entering adulthood, I lost a close friend. He was still in college at the time, a talented, friendly, bright light snuffed far too early. He was well loved and his funeral was so packed that it was standing room only. One attendee described it as “the most depressing class reunion ever.”

His loss has never left me.

Right before I got the phone call telling me the news, I had been feeling extremely down about myself. I was crossing my work parking lot (which I had to do regularly as part of my job) without looking up for moving cars, thinking that if I got hit, it wouldn’t have mattered.

But that same day, my phone rang. It was a mutual friend, and through obvious tears and a quavering voice, she told me, “John is dead!”

With that, everything changed.

I’ll never forget how much it hurt to lose somebody so important to me. The idea of purposely putting my friends through that has kept me going more times than I can count. I have to remind myself, even in my darkest, most self-hating moments, that I’m more important to others than I realize. I can’t imagine John would have known just how much of an impact he had made on others, but I saw the proof. I felt the pain. I love my friends and family too much to entertain the thought of making them attend my funeral. And so I push on, but with one change:

I now make a point to explicitly tell my friends how much they matter to me.

Here we are 16 or 17-year-old girls showing up to these random college guys house.

Oh man. It’s scary how normal this is treated. I remember having friends with “older boyfriends” and I always felt really weirded out by it. Yet when you’re a kid (or teen, in this case) and your friends act like it’s normal to want adult boyfriends, you’re put in a really awkward position. I wasn’t able to fully articulate or even comprehend everything fucked up about it at the time, but as an adult looking back, holy shit. There’s an entire hidden social ecosystem where being groomed is not only considered normal, but can be seen as enviable by peers.

One time as a kid, a friend lent me her glasses (I never needed glasses, but I always liked them) and I went to climb a tree. In the tree, looking down, the glasses made it seem like I was much closer to the ground than I was.

So I jumped.

It was extremely stupid. There was a point during the fall when I felt like I should’ve reached the ground already, but I hadn’t. In the end I was fine, the glasses were fine, and my friend thought it was funny. But wow, that could’ve gone disasterously wrong.

Important update - he “postponed” this tour. (Here’s a Lemmy-based link about it.)

Now, the article uses the word “postpone.” But we all know that’s just a coward’s way of saying something is “cancelled.” Which is why it perfectly tracks for Schumer and I’d be willing to bet he never actually goes on this tour at all.

That reminds me of a scene in Archer. One of the characters temporarily decides to become a country music star. A foreign dictator becomes obsessed with her. On the day her album drops, she happens to be in that dictator’s country. Instantly, the album went platinum. How?

Cut to a scene where pallets and pallets of her album are being unloaded - all purchased by that dictator.

Here’s a fun trick to stop using Reddit - simply install and use a VPN.

Just like that, Reddit blocks itself for you!

Thankfully, there are some designs that improve on this! Here’s what’s in my kitchen:

The brand is OXO, for anyone curious.

The keyboard I’m currently using has a key in the F-row that’s tied to a lock screen. I accidentally hit it several times a day, and end up having to put in the passcode to unlock the computer every time.

I wish I could disable that stupid key. I’m tempted to pop it right out. But I use a shared computer, so I’m limited in options here.

I’d really love to find a new radio for my car that: 1) can serve as a monitor for my back-up camera, and 2) isn’t a fucking touch screen.

There are models that are one or the other, but I haven’t found anything that’s both. The closest I’ve found is a compromise - a touchscreen that also has a few tactile controls. But I don’t want to have to rely on any touch screen when I’m driving. I simply don’t feel compelled enough to spend $400+ for a frustrating half-measure.

nobody is forcing anyone to say “all x are y” because someone else is (I agree, in bad faith) doing the same thing.

Legal documents are being made to say that all x (transgender individuals) are now y (the wrong gender) because someone else (the government) is making them say so.

I recognized the point OP was going for, but by singling out veganism (and with such a tired stereotype), the tone changes.

I wonder if adding another two examples (because rule of 3), along with the vegan/meat-eater scenario (or replacing it), might help convey the intent more clearly. It would remove the spotlight from one particular group (which, as we all know, is already heavily targeted with undue hate), and would make it more obvious that the message is “we’re all in this together.”

It would take restructuring the whole comic, unfortunately, but it could work.

As far as ways to filter for such positions, maybe look for roles that require traveling? At the very least, you’d be in a different location throughout your week.

By this logic, the less predictable your daily life is, the more “alive” you are.

So for a lot of us, to be “alive” is to experience constant anxiety about what’s about to happen.

…

Actually, that tracks.

It’s also worth noting that at the time, Samaritans were seen as an enemy. “To the Jews, a Samaritan was more revolting than a Gentile (pagan); Samaritans were half-breeds who defiled the true religion.”

So when it was written that a good Samaritan was an example of a neighbor, it was more impactful than the phrase implies today. Part of the point was to say that even those perceived as “enemies” are ordinary people that should be treated with the same dignity and care given to one’s own tribe.

That’s a silver lining, at least.

Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It’s an annual holiday, where banks, schools, and other institutions are typically closed.

In other words, nazis overshadowed Martin Luther King Jr. on his own day.

Looks like neonazis are unaware that Hitler was vegetarian (from 1938, til the end of his life.)

Not that I expect neonazis to be knowledgeable about history, or capable of recognizing their own hypocrisy. It’s just somewhat amusing that if this meme holds true, even their Fuhrer’s dietary choices would’ve upset them.

That is amazing. TIL!

So we can say that Bork borked things up?