Talk Elections

Old thread (https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=275474.0) has basically hit capacity, so here's another.

Great work, lads. Only 16 seasons behind the original Update.

At a bus stop about to go to a lab, then I have to type up a lab report and study for two exams. And I pulled an all nighter doing school work.

This has been the longest semester of my life easily.

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$30.80 well spent

Can't wait to wear this all over NYC and get high-fives from all the other undercover Drumpf fans.

BTW, before anyone asks, no - people who wear these hats don't really get any vitriol at all other than the occasional glare, and people seem to be afraid of glaring at me anyway because of the vibe I give off I guess.

A couple close friends of mine have worn MAGA hats in NYC all the time with no problem. The people aren't as brainwashed and frothing at the mouth as you might think

also, in other news, I got this random text from some guy who claims I made his girlfriend cheat on him and that the next time he sees me on campus will be something I 'regret.' The thing is...I'm not even sure what girl and what campus he's referring to lmfao. This isn't even the first time something like this happened to me and it won't be the last.

I am so hopeful we can make you the new Libertas. Be sure to post exceptionally large pictures in every post (dimensionally challenged if possible) and go into even more detail about your trysts in the Greatest City on Earth when you have time to share with us.

I am in New York less and less these days, but I did some girl wearing a MAGA hat on Market Street here earlier this year. I was wide-eyed shocked and did a triple take. She seemed rather normal and no one acted out of the ordinary at all. Though the outer boroughs are hardly comparable to the city center here, I wouldn't even dare do so much in West Virginia.

Did you read one of my first posts, about how a while back I met a guy who also went by 'Libertas' on some other forum, a long time before I even knew of this forum? Next time I meet him I'll ask him if he's the same guy as the one from this forum

oh, and I'll definitely be writing as much as I can about my quest to get laid as much as possible AND to convert as many left wingers as possible in NYC to Trumpism.

I'll also share screenshots of hilarious/crazy texts I get sometimes from girls and others as a result of my quest lmao. Stay tuned.

“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.”

Ever find yourself totally cut off from the world when you didn't expect it or need it? Well it happened to me yesterday.

I have an annual meeting in the Rockies (Vail/Beaver Creek) and this year I decided to take the train instead of flying. I had the time and the train goes through a stretch of canyons of the Colorado river that have no road, so the only way to see them is by train or whitewater kayak (including class 5 rapids). Indeed the Gore Canyon, particularly the Upper Gore were well worth the overnight ride across NE (though that picked up 14 counties in my quest to visit them all).

However, between the Gore and Red canyons the train came to a stop. We were already about an hour behind schedule, but I had 4 1/2 hours cushion in Glenwood Springs before the Enterprise car office closed and left me 70 miles from my lodging. A half hour after the stop the conductor announces that a boulder has fallen on to the tracks and a maintenance vehicle had to come out to lift the boulder and check the tracks. As the half hour wait became three hours I was nervous.

Normally I'd be on my phone and tablet, contacting the car rental office to see how late they could stay, and booking a room in Glenwood Springs as a backup. However we in one of those gorgeous canyons and there was no cell service of any kind and no wifi on the train. All I could do was sit.

Finally just before 5 pm the boulder is cleared and we get rolling, with an estimated arrival of 6:15 into Glenwood Springs - that's 15 minutes after Enterprise closes. I did note that 30 min before we got there we'd pass through the town of Dotsero where for about 3 minutes I'd have service. I cued up a string of email messages to my wife about the situation and who to call. I could do much else given the weak service and short time through Dotsero.

Somehow the plan worked. My wife got the messages, got a hold of the local Enterprise office and gave them the necessary credit card and DL info to complete the contract. At 6:03, about 10 minutes from Glenwood Springs I had service again and found a text from Enterprise about where they'd leave the car with keys and a contract. Great!

Not so fast, the lot I was supposed to find the car had construction, so I wandered up to the street in front of the station looking for my car. It wasn't parked but at 6:20 I see the bright red Corolla with UT plates turn the corner. I wave and all is good, since the Enterprise driver was also trying to figure out what to do when the lot was closed. Enterprise lived up to its advertising on this day.

The haterzzz in my life don't realize it but they just push me harder towards success and greater and greater heights. shoving my success in the face of people who said I couldn't make it is the most satisfying thing on Earth.

cheers to my haterz, so much more is coming. just wait and see, bitches!

I had a good experience with mixing Enterprise and Amtrak on my honeymoon trip last year.  In my case, it was dropping off the car before they closed and them shuttling us to the station in Flagstaff. The only real problem was that the train was delayed so we had to spend a couple extra hours at the station. Fortunately, I had planned for the possibility of a delay, so while it was a discomfort, we still managed to get to LAX, take a shuttle bus from LAX the train station to LAX the airport, and arrive in time for our flight home except that too was delayed in leaving.

Today is my birthday! :D

Sorry to hear that.

happy birthday brah make the most of ur day!!!

:(

I discovered a little less than a year ago that every birthday after 21 was simply part of a long, dismal, undistinguished march toward the grave. Indeed, I hadn't really felt I accomplished anything since March 2017.

That's exactly I feel! Life is all downhill from here! The birthdays just mark how long our suffering lasts.

what a bad attitude lmao.

yeah life is going to suck if you think like that.

you can't control what happens to you, but you can control how you react to it. your reaction is what will make the difference between being a successful person being a loser.

You know what they say about ignorance, buddy

no I don't because those who try to bring me down are already below me. their opinion doesn't matter.

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Up and away to Honolulu.

I doubt those shoes are even American made smh.

Handmade (and hand-distressed! the shoes come "dirty") in Italy.

My dress shoes are all American-made. So are the trousers I'm wearing

I couldn't disagree more. At 21 I had only graduated college. I had so many achievements yet to come in terms of family, academics, politics, travel, ... .  By getting involved with martial arts at 30 i felt more fit at 40 than I did at 21. I find each birthday is a chance to recognize all the new and interesting things accomplished and plan for what's next.

👏👏👏💯💯💯

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Watching the sun set over Waikiki from my hotel room. Rented a convertible, driving around the island tomorrow, and then catching up with some old classmates on Monday.

You know that weird thing where you hear someone talking and you can know their next four or five words before they say it? It always freaks me out, but today I got like 16-17 words ahead. Creepy!

i've been spending most of my time on AAD since late-2015, but I graduated with my Bachelors degree and have moved from Indiana to Sweden for graduate school for (at least) the next 2 years

A little annoyed that I spent over 6 years learning Italian and 5 years of German, but thankfully Swedish isn't too hard to learn. It's just frustrating having to start over from the beginning for the 3rd time

Having a great time though. Everyone is very nice, Stockholm is a very pretty city (not like miserable, industrial Lake County, Indiana) even if it is very expensive and it's starting to get dark and chilly. I was worried that I wouldn't fit in or be able to keep up (academically or socially) at an "elite" school, but the student body is quite diverse and open-minded.

I also joined the Socialdemokraterna on my second day here :) I canvassed student apartments twice and handed out literature outside metro stations three times for a local candidate. I also attended their election watch party on September 9th.  They invite me to their monthly meetings and are incredibly welcoming. That's a very Atlas thing, I suppose

I’m glad to hear you’re starting this new chapter, Clarko! I’m sorry to hear you’re involved in politics though—hope you feel better soon! :(

Sadly, I think I just attended the last service of my church where I'll consider myself a member. UU congregations vary, and the one I have attended for the last six years or so has gone into politics in a major way and I'm not wanting to mix religion and politics. Moreover, I'm worried if they have the capacity to do what they want to do, and that they haven't adequately considered if they can. Last and least, I don't think the tack they propose to take is the best use of time and resources to address the issue they want to address. Their hearts are in the right place, but I think their heads are in the clouds here.

However, I'd been drifting from them for a while anyway as the current pastor's sermons rarely speak to me.  They're social studies and/or lessons /civic holiday of the week/month more than spirituality insights. Today's sermon was a case in point.  It focused on National Disability Employment Awareness Month and how we shouldn't put disabled people in a box labeled "courageous" when they do the same things everyone else does.  All well and good, but even with that cheesy topic there was much more that could have been done that would have spoken to my spiritual side. (Or even someone else's!) There was no attempt to plug this topic into any religion or philosophy whatsoever. Even if it had been kept 100% secular, rather than simply being about how we shouldn't treat the disabled as "inspiration porn" for accomplishing ordinary tasks in a manner different than we do, I think a more effective approach would be to point out that we're all courageous and inspirational when we do the difficult task of living, not just the disabled. An effective sermon needs to about not just the other, but also the self if it is to speak to the soul.

She means well, but it's time to bite the bullet.  It looks like ELCA is where I'll be headed now. I've been attending an ELCA church occasionally, and regularly participating in bible study there. Moreover, the pastor there, she's the one who did our prenuptial counseling. My main concern is that I take creeds seriously, so I have yet to decide if I'll become a full member or just show up more often.

Brah im gonna get plastered 2night just watch lmao

Awesome brah.  Be safe

I'm so cold.. lol.. hopefully I'll acclimate soon. I just refuse to use heat or air conditioning at home.

Interesting weekend. On Saturday I ran into a former classmate of mine I always had a thing for at a coffee shop and she said we should “catch up”; may be worth my attention. This morning I went hiking with a friend at a state park and we found ourselves sharing the trail with a 5/10K. We made sure to grab pizza and coffee from the table after we crossed the finish line. Mass tonight focused on the canonization of Oscar Romero; though Romero was a Dominican(?), the Jesuits at my school are very involved in Latin American issues and pretty activist, so they have a great appreciation for him.

You should ask her out for coffee.  You know both of you like it.  It’s a day time date so if she’s with a guy already it’s not awkward and it’s laid back and open ended.

Romero was diocesan, however, funnily enough he was a member of Opus Dei.

brah i need to clean up from last night :/

Ah. I vaguely remember the name of his order beginning with a "d", but couldn't remember what had been said; "Dominican" is the one I happen to hear more. 


Was considering coffee or a drink.

Coffee first, then graduate to a drink

My only trepidation there is that I try to stick to depressants in the evening (though I try to avoid both depressants and stimulants during the week in general; a proto-date would be an acceptable exception), limiting me to the weekends, which is when I try to get things done. But fair enough point, I suppose.

Just signed on to support the existence of a SFL (Students for Liberty) Student Group in our univeristy. They're a very small group and needed 30 people to sign so that the group can keep its official status. Though I certainly disagree with their very libertarian views, I decided to sign because of a pluralistic worldviews- I find it important to keep their voices in the conversation.

PG’s move to the right begins.

Oh don't worry, one of them is a casual friend of mine and he already tried to indoctorinate me a year ago. I still have the "government, leave us alone!" with a pride flag sticker he gave me to try and woo me into supporting his cause :P

Good, good.

Youtube is down for now and it is very upsetting, hopefully it is up before the next person reads this so you won't be frustrated too.

I had a bad dream last night that I got banned from Atlas forever, in the dream I was like "what did i post to get banned?" you know.

quite the nightmare.

I really hope your dreams come true.

Well I hope your dreams come true too, all the good ones.

I'm not petty so I won't wish bad upon my haters.

Don’t mind him, he’s a milder version of the alt right and other things, he will reap what he sows in the next world.

I am the founder of a nationstates region and almost everyone in my own region hates me right now because they say I can't run a region or something like that because we are a dying region.

Imagine how great of a forum administrator I would be.

https://www.nationstates.net/region=union_of_saxon_justice

I'm seeing Bob Dylan for the fourth time in St. Augustine tonight! Well worth the three hour drive.

I'm leaving atlas because it seems to be bad for my mental health. Nebulousviolet@gmail.com if anyone wants to contact me that much(won't neccesarily answer)

I am getting a therapist, so don't worry about me.

Goodbye and good luck.

I just took a look off of the official state election website at how my ballot will look when I cast my vote during the early voting period next week. I am very excited to do my part in helping to remove Larry Hogan from office.

you know whats weird guys?

i dont have a single memory from the time i turned 7 until the time i turned 10. i got to thinking about it, i remember the years before and after those pretty well but in between is a black hole, like i cant remember anything that happened during that stage of my life.

maybe i hit my head

Best of luck and wishes. We may not have seen eye to eye, but I really did appreciate your presence on this forum and hold you in high regards. Take care.

You deserve to feel better and go through the waves as strong as possible. I hope you come back once you overcome this.

Anywho, I saw Bob Dylan last night, but I was in such severe back pain that I struggled to enjoy the show. On top of that, I had to drive two hours to Vero afterwards. I couldn’t make it, so I crashed in my car for a few hours at a rest stop.

Made it to Vero after a long and arduous drive (I had severe back pain the whole night) to visit my grandma. My paranoia proved correct - my beloved grandma is doing far far worse than they have been telling me. In fact, it may be a matter of days. I’m staying outwardly strong but on the inside I’m an absolute wreck.

If you're on AAD, you might have heard of my mother's side of my family. In essence, I am the black sheep of my mother's side of the family, for the horrible crime of being the sane one. It has four sects (besides my own). One is my mother, who I have zero contact with (and most likely never will) because of my issues. Two siblings are enablers of my mother, reaffirming her warped worldview that I'm under my father's spell. The final sect is the Douchebags.

Aside from being the embodiment of upper-class limo liberalism, the Douchebags are horrible people. In essence, what constitutes their family is very tenuous and revocable.. At best they're enablers of my mom, at worst they're holding me responsible for her own fight with my mom. And to give you an idea, these people are so bad that in said dispute with my mom, that she was right! Freezing you out is a first measure and not a last resort.

Last Thanksgiving, I decided to cut my mother out of my life after she spent most of the time I spent with her screaming and raging at me. The Enablers decided to invite my mom to Christmas, so I thought I would go to the Douchebags. They said no because "they wanted to keep things to the kids' in-laws" - never mind that there was still enough room for one more person. Eventually, I found out that they didn't want to keep things to their nuclear family - one of the Enablers was going down after all. I cut them out of my life (irrevocably) and burned the bridge. I thought this was fine for ten months.

Then the cousin tried to talk to me. I one-worded her for five sentences in a row - mainly because the only things coming to mind were "why are you talking to me" and "why aren't you apologizing after what you did to me". Closed ass body language, no eye contact, the whole nine yards. She didn't take it well. Actually, she lost it on me. I believe the exact words were "REALLY SAWX, YOU'RE FINKSING BETTER THAN THIS SHINKS!"

So yeah, she absolutely knew my feelings, and somehow saw nothing wrong with it instead of being a woman and admitting she and her family messed up.

Generally, the reaction was "lolwhat", but my best friend had the best reaction.

"WAS THAT AN EX?"

I enjoyed the godlike burn. Generally I just let my now-estranged cousin make herself look like a nutjob. Certainly better than the grand fantasies I had about telling her off.

Not trying to be a dick (especially to people whom I really, really like), but to all of the people messaging me about Fantasyland, please refrain from messaging me any further. I'm currently in Vero Beach at my aunt's house spending time with my grandmother, who has only days to live. I appreciate the fun of Atlasia, but wifi is real spotty here and it will probably take several tries just to get this post up. I'm not ignoring you guys on purpose, and if I could, I'd vote in a heartbeat, but I just don't have the time to keep trying to get the vote post formatted.

Today was my brother's 21st birthday, but it's been a rough couple weeks for him. He AMA'd out of rehab and used again, before sending my parents a series of extremely angry texts in which he labeled me a "schizophrenic", my youngest autistic brother "a non verbal retard" and threatened to put opiates in my dad's coffee. That was like a week ago.

We were able to take him from his detox center so he could visit my grandma (against both of my parent's instincts) one last time, and he was incredibly moody and physically ill due to the withdrawals. He refused to allow my dad to take him back (he refuses to talk to my dad at all), so my mom had to drive him an hour south back to the facility even though her own mother literally is in rapidly failing health. This infuriated me, and I sort of went off on him, lambasting his selfishness, his constant attempts to blame others, etc, etc. He went to hug me before he left, but I coldly told him to "just go."

I now feel a fair bit of remorse, so I just called the rehab and had them take an apology message to him. He doesn't deserve it, and I frankly only fifty percent meant it TBH, but I don't want to ruin his birthday and I definitely don't want him leaving the facility again. I'm feeling pretty much every emotion for him at once. But I *think* I did the right thing by apologizing. Maybe I'm unwittingly enabling him, but I just can't bear seeing him so miserable.

One of my atheist friends recently started dabbling in prayer, so I'm introducing him to the Anglo-Catholic faith.

I suddenly got a bald spot 2 months ago that I have been treating with a corticosteroid. Fortunately the spot is easy to cover up and there is some regrowth where the hair loss originally started but it is thinner than before and more worryingly the spot is noticeably bigger than it was 2 months ago.

Edit: So apparently I have Diarrhea. My mood seems to have suddenly improved after I emptied my bowels, whereas the hour before I was feeling anxious and depressed. WTF is going on with my body.

This is why I left Atlasia, constant messages that is.

I'm sorry about your grandmother and I hope you'll use remaining time together.

I spent the entire weekend with her after the Bob Dylan concert. She is at peace with herself and despite the end stage COPD, she insisted I wheel her outside for cigarettes. She’s defiant to the bitter end, and I’m so incredibly proud of her.

Grandma died five minutes ago. I want to tear my teeth out.

I'm so sorry for your loss, Sanchez.
:(

Sorry for your loss!  :(

I'm really sorry for your loss. I'm sure you'll preserve, even if for her sake.

My sincere condoleances

Thanks friends :)

I’m sorry for your loss.  She lives on in your heart and mind.

Following the recent attempted attacks against demonized symbols of leftist globalism and liberalism, as well as Jewish figures demonized by the far-right, as well as the entire Kavanaugh affair, I have decided that I can no longer continue with an I-IL avatar, at least for the time being. While I'm still willing to compromise on the actually important issues, economics, as long as a few core values (like universal coverage) are kept, I've come to realize that it is no longer possible to ignore the aggressiveness of the GOP, running over traumatized women, and more importantly, the fact that my form of ideology has just come under attack, and reactions by populist GOP figures who incited against them, like Trump and Gingrich, only made it worse. This doesn't mean, of course, that my ideology changed in any way. I'm still the same guy, but I just can't see how a green avatar makes sense for me at this point, despite my previous reluctance to participate in American partisan divides.

Hopefully, I can one day return to the green avatar.

Finally got my absentee ballot, will be filling it out when I get home after finishing my homework.

Will be voting tomorrow.

I'm very sorry, I know how you feel too, very awful, I hope it gets better.

Damn.  Nice car bro.

I sympathize with you. Republican craziness is precisely why I changed my avatar from green to red in mid-2016.

I'm considering going back to a red avatar as well. Anyone here who knows me knows I'm not very partisan and my opposition with Trump is more geared towards economic policy rather than mean tweets. I switched to green after Maxine Water's bullsh**t and how all the red avatars here reacted, which made me realize culturally, I'm not on the same page as many urbanite Dems, but at the end of the day, I, with a few exceptions, do not support Republicans plain and simple.

I just voted for Ben Jealous and did my part to help remove Larry Hogan from office.

My uncle, who is a fairly accomplished guitar player in a local duo, wrote and recorded the most beautiful song about my grandma and I completely lost it.

Eww

I managed to get absolutely nothing accomplished at work today and it was horrible. I hate trying to write code in R.

Just got back from D.C., honestly one of the best experiences I’ve done vacationing.

I'm switching for the same reason.  I never really changed my registration anyway, but I'm a little less frustrated with the Dems than I was since Hillary won the nomination.  The anti-establishment wing is growing and even though it will probably take a few more cycles before progressives become the norm, generational shifts pretty much ensure that it will happen, and this year wasn't a bad start for those types of candidates.  Florida's more likely than not to elect a grassroots-based governor and my favorite Democratic congressman is about to be Colorado's next governor.  I've also seen Democrats at least act like they give a sh!t about rural communities this cycle.

I've also never voted for a Republican and I'm pretty sure I never will unless it's county or local.  The Democrats may be dumb, spineless, too uptight, politically correct and "woke" to the point of insanity, but they're the only legitimate party that can govern and doesn't represent an ideology that's morally displaced at best to downright nihilistic at worst.

Idk why but I've been super happy since the NJ-Sen debate.

Sought help from a trans support group at my college and it's nice having a place to talk about my feelings regarding the recent news (and other things) with people who can relate to my concerns. Decided to come back to the forum, mostly because this forum always has been my primary news source for specific races, though from here on out I'm probably going to avoid any threads relating to transgender people for obvious reasons.

Thank you!

In other news, somebody in my school got shot and despite the suspect being in custody, we're still in lockdown for some reason.

EDIT: Well, I guess we're not doing the midterm today.

I voted for the first time the other day. The precinct was packed which makes me happy because I like to see high voter enthusiasm regardless of the election outcomes. Hesitated to vote for Jealous, but ended up voting a pretty much straight D ticket, and in favor of both amendments.

Was the shot lethal? I hope that the victim survives.

He'd already died by the time you replied.

Jesus Christ that sounds awful, stay safe Peebs!

I got pulled out of school an hour and a half ago (and for some reason, school's still technically open), so while my mind's been going 100 miles a minute all day, I've technically remained safe.

So did this happen on campus? Because if so, there are definitely going to be changes at your school for at least a short while.

Hell I remember when I was in high school after Sandy Hook. The next day, each school in Palm Beach County had a Sheriffs Deputy outside all day. Ours was a woman of at least 70 years of age; she had a huge puffy giant Afro that was the height of one third of her body. I told my mom "we're f--ked" if a shooter came in because she'd probably have broken a hip if she tried to confront him.

Yeah, it seemed to happen where my second block was gonna take place.

One of my pet cats died earlier today :(

Very very sorry. Our pets are our treasures.

Dang, that sounds like pretty thuggy environment, stay safe.

This.

dudes I've been having pain in my chest since Saturday night, it's making me really pissy and I need to take a day off but that's not gonna be possible in the near future. Maybe the 100 hour weeks are catching up to me.

Give your wings a rest young goose.

Just popping in to share this BIOPIC DRAMA ABOUT RBG PLAYED BY FELICITY JONES coming out this Christmas because I thought you guys would want to know if you don't already. Commence feminist and democrat squees.

On the Basis of Sex (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28dHbIR_NB4)

I am going to be cleaning my profile of posts I regret making.

Already removed about 500.

Edit: Down about 1,000 now.

brah I'm going to this party on Saturday that's gonna be awesome, might post pics on the PAPOY thread.

Might leave after the midterms tbh.

I'll be starting spironolactone on Saturday, and it's looking like estradiol will be coming about a month after that.

Trick-or-treaters in my ‘hood are lame. This is what I get for living around a bunch of yuppies.

Trick or treaters only rang on our door like one time this entire night. No one ever comes around since we are in a relatively secluded part with plenty of dead end roads that no one goes on unless they live here or are visiting someone here. There is never any traffic outside our house, kind of good but also gets kind of quiet. We did not even end up purchasing candy this year because no one ever comes.

Off to Singapore tomorrow. Majulah!

Bring lots of chewing gum. You'll be surprised by the response you get.

Going to help with the election process as EM on the sixth. Gonna put in my first early vote the coming week!

This has been a really wet fall. Nothing but rain and more rain and more rain. My plans to visit Mt. Davis, the tallest peak in Pennsylvania, have been ruined first by awful luck with every weekend raining out and then by every day being cold and rainy.

My DnD character recently fought off annoyed cultists while wielding a prop sword and dressed as a duck. As an arrogant gloryhound, he will brag about this, like he brags about everything else.

I love elections and all but jesus, I can't watch a single youtube video without getting slammed with unskippable Everytown for Gun Safety PAC ads.

Drinking away a mild case of feels that didn't work out

Feels drinking is really hit or miss. At least for me, sometimes it helps but sometimes it makes it worse.

Yuge mistake.

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Hmm, should I volunteer one last time? Already contributed countless hours of in-person work to this campaign.

I met Jim Hunt when my mom and sibling were early voting today and was barely able to contain my fangirling.

Lucky wtf

I think I'd nut my pants if I met Josh Gottheimer or Thomas Kean Sr. tbh

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I think it's my 100th day on this forum because every time I make a post, my #post per day quantity is #posts / 100.

I realized that when I sleep all day (as I did today), I feel more depressed than if I just lied in bed and did nothing all day.

If you are depressed, sleeping too much can just make it worse. It seems appealing because you can just skip time but sleeping isn't like a simple on/off switch afaik. Lots of complicated stuff going on there.

Yeah, I've done that a bit too much as of late. Did that for a few months after graduation while searching in vain for a job....trippy dreams.

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Good times in Singapore.

I’m so bored right now if someone wants to talk to me, now is your chance.

I'm not so bored that I'd want to.   3:)

I screwed up an ArcGIS installation and since this type of thing requires an authorization number (which now has been used), I've a feeling my copy might now be completely useless.

I just farted and it smelled so bad I actually didn't like it. Should I be concerned?

My girlfriend and I are going to the Twenty One Pilots concert here in KC on the 21st. I like the band, but she absolutely loves them and they mean so much to her since they helped her as she struggled with depression, suicide, and self-harm. But, I have a big surprise planned for her during her favorite song, which they play at the end of every concert; I'm going to propose to her. I'm so excited and nervous!

OMFG GOOD LUCK!!! Do update us!

Alright.

Time to defend the freiwal.

Got called for jury duty for the first time, LOL.

Eh, been called like ten times and never had to go.

If I don’t pop off the champagne for Governor-elect DeSantis than I’ll do it in honor of you guys instead. Either way I’m drinking champagne that I bought at a gas station.

For your sake, I hope there's a tie so you won't drink that swill.

For some reason my Google Ads for this site were clogged this evening with ads for a nearby school board race in a county I haven't been in for weeks. Since the candidate is a software developer in his day job that probably explains his ad buy while candidates in my local school board haven't.

Only thing I can think of is that I do carry my tablet to work and I do on occasion have reason to Google that school district's schools on my work computer for reasons that have nothing to do with the board or politics.

You aspiring left-wing radicals will be happy to know that turnout is insanely high in my heavily-Democratic neighborhood.

This is literally funny. Ever since I used the option to ask Google to not show me that ad, I haven't seen a single ad on the Forum.

Normally I'm just depressed and jaded and sleepy.

Mood today:

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Americans for Prosperity dramatically overpaid me due to a clerical error. I did the right thing and reported it to both my boss and my boss’s boss’s, but I’m hoping they’ll forget about it/let me keep it :P

Man, these midterms drained the sh**t out of me.

Does your girlfriend know about Atlas? I hope she doesn't because it might just ruin the surprise lol :P. But good luck!!!

I think it's time to stop lying to myself, I at the very least towards the democrats now, if not actually being a democrat. I still am a "liberty lover" don't get me wrong, but how about this. I don't think in the greatest country on the world you should have to worry about whether or not you can take your child to the doctor or yourself to the doctor, or that you have to face eviction from your apartment because even though you work long hours, your job still doesn't pay enough. I don't believe you should have to worry about being arrested for smoking a mostly harmless drug. I don't think you should be deported if you have contributed to society and are just trying to make a better life for your family, not "trying to bring in crime and sapping off the government". Honestly, it's true that I have never put the most effort into anything, I have tended to take the easy way out in the past on things. I am done with that though, I am not gonna take the easy way out on this, I believe if we harness the energy on the ground and continue what has been started by so many, then we can seriously make a difference in this country.

So I have three tabs open for CNN, one each for big map house, governor, and senate races, and I wanted to see how Tester was doing, and I clicked on a tab and saw that Montana was pretty red, and I almost lost my lunch, until I figured out a couple seconds later that I was accidentally on the house tab looking at Montana at large, so I quickly changed to the senate tab, and I felt like a stack of bricks was lifted off my back as I saw Montana dusted over in a powdery baby blue :).

yo so like today it was rough. but then like tomorrow will be too but friday will be cool so im not sleeping tonight brah, no sleep, powering through until 9 PM tomorrow lets go brah!!!

I am having a really bad ptsd-like feeling due to the Senate not flipping.

For the midterms, I am really glad that Michigan and Missouri legalized weed tho. Libertarianism is winning. Next stop will be legalizing every drug, and forcing those old ass people in the government the hell out of any legislating "moral" issues and preventing the government from making us taxpayers pay to keep useless drug addicts alive in prison, or using our tax dollars to help other irresponsible and weak people who don't deserve saving, as well as finally ending the Ponzi scheme that is Social Security.

Eventually, some big picture businessman will come to the conclusion that having a workforce saturated by drug abuse and addiction is--wait for it--bad for business and push for a "reform" movement to rid society of what he deems a menace. The drug issue will become especially acute when it even takes over bourgeois professions including engineers and analysts where some level of mental competence is required.

It won't though, because responsible people won't do that sh**t. I've never done hard drugs. The losers I was raised around did though. Why? Because they were weak and wanted to "escape" from the problems they themselves created and didn't want to dig themselves out of, and wanted to blame everyone else while for it.

I don't have sympathy for addicts. I was raised by them and around them. They don't deserve sympathy, and trusting that they won't abuse any help you try to provide is also a dumb move.

Who cares about sympathy when you don't even have a workforce?

Would you do hard drugs just because they are legal? The reason I want to legalize them is because smart, reasonable, responsible people won't do them. Making them illegal just means we have to pay from our own money to keep the people who do them or sell them in prison instead of letting them die alone on the street like they would have anyway.

And how many of these folks do you think exist? Under the economic regime you aspire to, of course laborers and perhaps even the lower white collar professions would flee to substance abuse. You could get away with sky-high alcoholism in 1890's slums prior to the knowledge economy, but not now.

What do you mean "economic regime" because I just think everyone should have to figure out how to make money in a free market capitalist society. I did it, it's not hard.

Also, people don't "flee" to substance abuse like they're victims running from something that had nothing to do with them. They're running from their own issues, issues that they created most of the time.

No one helped me with my "issues" growing up, but I didn't resort to drug use. So I don't respect those who do.

Hillgoose you know you’re a sociopath right?

And if that results in lower wages, lower standards of living, less recreational or family time, more strained relationships, greater stress, etc., that will translate into higher levels of "harmless" deviance such as drug abuse and addiction.


I will agree that, at the personal level, everyone should be willing to take responsibility for themselves. I learned this firsthand as regards fitness, health, etc. That said, people need to be in a situation to take stock of their lives, which they are not always able to do. That doesn't change the fact that there are broad social forces that have some effect on most humans. Suicide, crime, abortion, addiction all have their correlates in the social and economic spheres. Now, why should you care about this if you don't care about another living soul? Crime affects your ability to protect your property, sell your house, walk the streets. Drug addiction affects your ability to field a workforce to design, make, and sell your products. While we can always beef up the police to build a wall between the productive and the unproductive, a cycle of over-enforcement helps to create a permanent class of the unsociable--the very group of people that, in most cases, will never be able to turn their lives around. Legalize most drugs, sure, but if you plan to use it as some Darwinian social engineering scheme, it will backfire; the legalization of truly heinous narcotics will require the reinforcement of our mental health and addiction infrastructures in a way you would never be willing to fund. 


Hate is a drug too. I quit smoking. What of it?

So in other words, you foresee a return of Rockefeller Republicanism?  Nelson Rockefeller was a major factor in there being a War on Drugs in the first place.

Wrong. Sociopaths don't feel empathy. I feel empathy towards people who deserve it and haven't repeatedly violated my trust, taken advantage of me, and mistreated me. I am NOT a sociopath for not caring about the fate of those people, or for not wanting my tax dollars to help them survive so they can mistreat others.

Drug addicts need to grow the hell up and put their kids before their drug habit. I am NOT a sociopath for believing that, and people whose lives have been negatively impacted by these drug users are NOT sociopaths for not caring about the fate of these users, or not wanting them in their life.

10 cities
4 countries
3 continents
7 time zones
4 weeks

I'm completely shattered.

I'm officially moving in a few weeks.  Since this is Atlas, I will share my new representatives:

Old:
US House: Jim Cooper (D)
TN House: Jason Powell (D) (re-elected 64-36 in 2018)
TN Senate: Steve Dickerson (R) (re-elected 56-44 in 2016, I kind of worry about what might have happened had it been up in 2018)

New:
US House: Mark Green (R) (well, Marsha Blackburn technically until January)
TN House: Majority Leader Glen Casada (R) (re-elected 68-32 in 2018)- probably the favorite to become Speaker in 1/2019 as Speaker Harwell retired
TN Senate: Jack Johnson (R) (re-elected 67-33 in 2018)

Election Results (2018 precinct results not yet available, so I will provide the primary results even though they were too favorable to Republicans statewide due to having a more competitive race):

Old:
2018 Primaries: 61% Democrat (GOP Primary was 42% Lee)
2016: 56-35 Clinton (although I was pretty much right on the border with an alternate precinct that was 52-48 Trump in the 2-party vote)
2012: 53-46 Obama (Romney easily cleared 60% in the neighboring district)

New:
2018 Primaries: 71% Republican (GOP Primary was 47% Lee)
2016: 62-32 Trump
2012: 74-25 Romney

Thanks Atlas. Because of our merciless mockery of Bigfoot Erotica Man, I'm being slammed 24/7 with Bigfoot ads:

()

Someone in my inner circle has been feeding my mother info about me. Needless to say, I'm not pleased.

I wonder if Jack Handey envisioned President Donald Trump when he said “It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.” in his Deep Thoughts collection.

Time to assemble your own plumbers squad :P

Looks like I got a date. Now to figure out a way to flub it.

Talk about bigfoot, that oughta do it.

Or tell her that your voting for Trump because your brother’s on heroin. That did the trick for me once - Jesus what the hell was I thinking? :P

Well, until further communication, this is all academic—despite prior agreement. :P The twenty-first century really is the worst.

Why?

I really need to improve my grades and stay off Atlas. Time to become a man and an adult.

ask her what her favorite color is, that always worked for me.

Because that’s my MO given the last two.

Ghosted anyway at this point, do doesn’t matter.

I s'pose it is better to ghost than be ghosted.

I think I have strep brah, really sucks a$$ bcuz I feel unproductive and stuff. Also I have a packed weekend, gonna be hell.

I'll be stronger for getting through it.

Based off of our chats on the discord, I think you have a packed existence overall.

Just got into a minor car accident. It's a wintry mix here, so the roads are very slick. I still had to go to classes today though. On my way back home, I lost control of my car as I was going done a hill, and spun out, getting stuck in a ditch. Thank goodness the impact was soft and I was less than a mile from home. I was completely unhurt, and the car didn't look very damaged from what I could tell.

Nature strikes back, jk, you are ok and that is good.

Narcos Mexico comes out in 44 minutes. Knowing me I'll be done with all the episodes by Saturday and go back to having nothing to watch again. Oh well.

I'm working from home due to a snow storm... in November. Sometimes I hate Canada :P

We’ve gotten regular snow since Monday in Michigan.

hell yeah brah it's actually making me depressed that i've been not able to do stuff the past couple of days. I have a real high fever and stuff, it sucks.

I can barely walk after stepping on a nail yesterday, while exploring new location. 

You know I feel like a lot of people on here don't really understand why I'm a neoconservative. I've been thinking about it, I get labeled "sociopath" and stuff here, probably at least partially due to my political views. You know why I'm a neoconservative, and why it's not a sociopath ideology?

When you're a 7 year old kid, with parents who don't love you, and knowing full well that if you dropped dead the next day not a single person would care, in fact your classmates at school would probably be happy if you did, and one day the President of the United States comes on TV and says "We're going on this great undertaking to free an entire nation of people on the other side of the world, people who live under fear every day, people who don't have opportunities like we do in America because the people above them won't allow them to." That gives you hope. That makes you think "When I get out of this situation I'm going to help others get out of it too."

That's why I'm a neoconservative. It's not because I enjoy watching people suffer. It's because I think everyone should get the same rights and opportunities we do here in the USA, even if 99% of their nation wants to enforce some kind of religious or economic totalitarianism on them, and elects a government that does so, the 1% that wants to make something of themselves shouldn't be stifled by the 99%, and their government, who want to control their life in a way they don't want.

Hope you already had a tetanus shot, even betas who don't go outside like me should get them.

I was going to go grocery shopping yesterday. . .until another driver T-Boned my car and sent it to the tow lot.

I decided to walk to the grocery store today.  I was gone over an hour, and I was only able to carry half my normal weekly haul.  How do people without cars manage on a day-to-day basis?

My insurance company arranged for a rental car tomorrow, and the rental agency is 2.3 miles away.  I could have them pick me up, but I normally leave for work 20 minutes before they even open, so I'm considering walking again, weather permitting.  Or I may just break down and call a cab.

First off, they probably shop at someplace closer.

Whenever I see a new wave of AMA threads, I try to think of the most challenging possible questions to ask everyone who created such a thread.

Drove six hours to pick my brother and his gf up, then drove six hours back. Long day.

I was honored to be called a Jewish-American Princess today.

In Nashville metro for thanksgiving.

Currently sitting at the Amtrak Station in Fort Worth. Good to be out of town. Sadly, I couldn't find a nearby Braum's to kick-off the celebration.

Saw the psycho cousin again. This time she understood the meaning of "Don't ever talk to me again, my mother was right about you" and kept walking. Took effort to avoid me this time, even as I was in the crosswalk.

Again, imagine being so absolutely guano insane that you make my mother look like a functioning, mentally healthy individual.

same brah lmao.

Where you at?

I moved out of the D.C. area last week. I'm going to miss Maryland and DC so much, but I'm actually excited for the future for the first time since, idk, like early 2016?

Last two years have been an emotional rollercoaster. Lots of highs. Lots of lows. I lost myself in 2016 and I've slowly been rebuilding my life.

I've seen amazing things, done awesome things and met so many cool people. At the same time, I've cried so much these last two years and I've made a lot of mistakes. I'm still very flawed and broken on the inside. But at least I'm recognizing that both of these types of experiences can be true and can exist at the same time.


been a wild 2 years. grateful for them: the good, the bad, the ugly and the awesome.


grateful for my family and my friends. happy thanksgiving everyone!

Where you going to, Sunrise?

I'll message you!

found out today that earlier this week, a cousin's 15-yr old daughter died. seems to have been a suicide.    her family did not know she was struggling.

only knew her from fb and when her aunt and uncle spoke about her, but in any case I'm saddened and a bit shook and really feeling bad for them and her family.

My condolences.

So yesterday I went out for dessert and got two pies, come home, see my mom was already making a pie to which I wasn't aware, and we were having people over, whom I told previously we had dessert covered, and they brought more pie. I now have 4 pies.

Here stands before you a woman who never thought she'd find herself saying this, but for once in my life, I have too much pie.

I’m fittingly enough in a similar boat. :P

Oh pish-posh, if it's pumpkin, you got breakfast for a week or two!

I'm sorry to hear that, shua. :[

Thing is moisture accumulates on that stuff easily. I’m not well positioned to keep it. Love pumpkin, though. I’m at the age where I buy it for myself during the fall.

I don't normally disclose what goes on in my life these days because for the most part (especially this past October... some of you know why), things have been... just dreadful really, but for the first time in a while I'm actually feeling optimistic about stuff.  My mom and I recently joined a new church.  I'm starting to get out of the room more.  We found a new community and people have been really helpful and accommodating to us.  The hotel we're staying at even dropped us off *a lot* of food the other day so that we could have a good Thanksgiving.  The first one in years.

That, and with the midterms behind us it's nice to not have to worry about checking polls constantly.  For a while, anyway. :p

Also, I didn't share this earlier but my piggies have a new cage mate. :]

()

I named her Tipper.

Thank you.

Scott I'm glad things are looking more hopeful for you.

Sorry for your loss Shua :(

Good to hear Scott! Happy Thanksgiving!

Glad to hear that, hope all goes well :)

Nice, after Gore’s ex wife?

Thanks, guys. :]


Lol.  It rhymes with "chipper" and I just think it's a cute name.

Chelsea was also on my list of names FWIW. :p

In case any of you are wondering, this is literally how I am in my day to day life. Badass af:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIMVrX9CaVw

So I just ate more than everyone else in my family and I wake up this morning and am hungry still.

Made the mistake of having drinks with my family. They decided this was the best moment to talk about my grandma's Alzheimer's and how it's so bad she likely won't recognize us within the next year. And to bring up how heavily it runs on my grandpa's side and he might end up like that too. My chest hurts from holding back how much it hurt to hear it out loud from everyone else.

That's terrible, I'm so sorry. Alzheimer's is truly horrible.

Waiting for my flight at the Newark Polaris Club. No TVs on college football Saturday. At least lunch was good.

()

Getting more hours at my job, starting next week!

Sorry to hear that.

I knew you'd say that.

I had a nice week out East for Thanksgiving, but when I got home at 10 pm tonight I found there was no hot water and water all over the basement. Sometime during the week the hot water heater gave up the ghost. Fortunately the company I've used for 30 years has 24 hour service. The tech is here now and hopefully I'll have a new water heater in about an hour. It's probably good that he could come out tonight since we have a winter storm warning for tomorrow.

added - the new heater is in, but we'll have the occasional spurt from the faucets until all the air is out of the lines.

Sorry to hear that. Glad things are seemingly being rectified.

Thanks, and it was fortunate that we got things fixed Sat night since the area is shut down after a heavy wet snowfall. My lilacs are a third of their normal height, so I'll have to wait for spring to see what survives. There's also no cable service, including internet, so I have to rely on cell service to write this. I'm supposed to drive downstate for a meeting late this afternoon and tomorrow, but the roads aren't in very good shape yet.

So sorry to hear that. :(  Do you see your grandparents often?

Unfortunately not so often anymore because it's harder for them to travel and hard for me to fly back home (they live in Alaska). It used to be at least 2-3 months out of the year, either I fly there or they fly here, but it's been since winter 2016-2017 since I saw them. They plan to come down for a bit this summer, but it might be the last time we see my grandma and her still remember me.

Ted Cruz's dad spotted in Lima.

I just went from not expecting to find a boyfriend for at least another year and a half (though my pessimistic mind said never) to finding out my coworker who I like is bi and likes me back to making him my first boyfriend in the span of 48 hours. Geez.

Now, how do I keep my parents from finding out...

congrats

So, had a pretty decent first date last Sunday with a girl who’s getting her degree in bass performance. Overall pretty positive experience. Supposed to meet up this coming weekend. Trying not to spend this entire week freaking out. 

"The other one is, of course, outing yourself. I think be the first to out yourself, I always think. Because, you know, there's no end to the hypocrisy of the human heart."

When you say bass performance I presume you don't mean fisheries management, but which of the musical basses do you mean?

She used to play standup bass, but in this case bass guitar.

@fhtagn: I'm sorry to hear :( Hope you get to see them as soon as possible.

@Cold War Liberal and @Cathcon: That's awesome, for both of you! Hope your next meet up goes well, Cathcon! :)

2018: GO AWAY :(

Y’okay, bud?

I'll be fine, I think (hopefully? lol).

I start work next week and have no place to live because all of my living situation plans get interrupted with crazy developments.


Just frustrated with this entire year because it has been like this all year. Consistent inconsistency.

Hope everything works out. Thanks for the well wishes.

Thanks, I'm sure it will. Just frustrated in the moment haha.

And of course! :)

Was not selected for jury duty.

Fairly easy in Johnson County, IA if you say one Republican viewpoint. :P

Going to court for the first time tomorrow morning for a case management conference. They're kind of throwing me to the wolves but it should be a lot of fun!

I am moving in just a few days now

You know, you're not supposed to lie about your political beliefs during jury selection.

They must have asked about tax cuts, the only Republican viewpoint he has.

He is Republican on almost all the economic issues


Plus even on issues like Abortion he still I believe has said he would support a 20-24 week ban.

He said he supported something Obamacare-esque and a higher minimum wage, which makes him a communist to the GOP.

Only a 20-24 week ban? Communist and a baby killer.

So did Trump in 2015 and 2016 lol (on the min wage)


and Kasich I believe only supports a 20 week ban and is even more liberal than RINO Tom on the issue of Healthcare and so was Romney as well.

In fact I believe most Republican voters opposed the GOP bill on Healthcare as well lol.

IceSpear trolling aside, I was kidding.  Didn't talk once.  I was called back the day after I was excused (she said this was the second time this has happened in the 20+ years the lady had worked there), so I was the backup of the backups.  Got to leave at 11:30 and had the day off.

P.S.  "Republican viewpoint" in Johnson County, IA is probably even well to the left of me, LOL.  Not that anyone here should even care.

EDIT: IceSpear, you made me want to take the PM test again, haha.  We'll see if I am smart enough to link it.

I started a timeline (https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/across-two-decades-2000-2020.456809/) on AH.com.

I wonder if that is not the worst day in my life ever.

So since that quite clearly the priorities of the mod team here aren't exactly the greatest, and now that I'm on mod review for standing up to people who think its good to beat up on a dead president before his body is in the ground, I shall be leaving Atlas for good. I have been thinking about this for about 4 months, but now is the time for action.

Thank you and goodbye.

~ AP

Ya posting "F**k you mods!" 5 times in under an hour had NOTHING to do with it.  ::)

Bye, see you in a few days or a couple weeks, they are almost always back. Thanks for the memes and go Menendez and screw Hugin!

Wow! Thank you Mods! This is the progress we were asking for.

I just lucked out on an online physics question that I had no actual idea of how to solve where the answer was basically a 7 digit integer because an incorrect formula I attempted gave an incorrect answer within the range that the website deemed the answer to be possible through natural errors like rounding.

Have no idea how I did it but I am glad that I am getting the points.

Just google the question if you are stuck.

What physics course are you taking?

This was the only way I got through AP Chemistry.

That was a class where almost everything turned out poorly, but everything still turned out fine in the end. Wow, I love curves and leniency!

12 days until my only in-class final, and I have yet to begin studying
13 days until my first PhD apps are due and my third letter of rec guy says he hasn’t seen the links to submit the document. Also, my statement of purpose is too long and I feel like I haven’t spoken to enough faculty. Oh, well.

In good news, I’m now “tight” with like two faculty members at Wayne State who are interested in what I’d like to pursue, though I dread staying in the same area.

Also got a few job apps out for positions that I know I’m qualified for. Silence.

Second date with the bass player is postponed owing to a medical issue with a close family member.

Sounds a bit like my son over the last few months. He graduated in May, but either heard nothing or negative responses to both jobs and grad schools. In the end he heard last week that he got into grad school starting in Jan.

I’m in my last year getting an occupational master’s, but I’m now flirting with selling out to academia owing to a combination of intellectual curiosity, boredom, disenchantment with job seeking, and the desire to actually be able to focus on skill enhancement full time. If I got a job offer right now can’t guarantee I wouldn’t jump at the chance to become middle class though. :P

I met this girl who might very well be my Eva Braun :P

So, someone you'd only marry right before committing suicide? I thought better of you than that and you don't strike me as the type to commit suicide. I sincerely hope I'm right about that.

I'm moving tomorrow- I'm almost kind of packed.

Just finished up my last project for the semester and....

I don't have a good feeling about it. I don't have a good feeling about any of the last projects I had to do.

It would be like that wouldn't it? Get straight A's with almost no effort only to get swamped with chuggers worth eleventy-billion percent of the grade. ...It's like 2016 [or for you GOP peeps...2012 I guess since Romney lead that one for awhile] all over.

The good news is, in the one case, the professor is a very lenient grader and she liked my presentation...and in the other case, if I did the math right, I can slide through with only 50% worth of the grade.

The bad news, I had a lot formatting troubles and she'd have to be really lenient for me to get through...and with the other one, the professor is not the nicest grader so it's not out of possibility that I really f*(k it up...also I could've done the math wrong.


And I really have no idea what the heck happens if one of them pulls through while the other flounders.

My depression has surged back into prominence yet again lately. Nihilistic thoughts haunt my daily existence. I left my home, everything and everyone that I ever knew, for promise of better opportunities and nothing good has come to fruition. It has for others in my family that moved, yet no matter what I do it just seems to escape me. Nearly 6 months later and, overall, I’m no better off than I was back in Florida; I’m still stuck at a crap job that makes my degree worthless, I make well below a living wage, and have applied to over 500 jobs online at this point and not a single positive result. I’ve changed my resume numerous times, had it reviewed by “professionals,” targeted jobs I figured I’d get, and yet... nothing. 10,000+ jobs available in the area, but none willing to hire me, except the jobs any person off the street could get.

I have bills to pay, a disabled girlfriend with no health insurance, $30,000+ in student loans, and a growing issue with alcohol. I just want to believe something good is coming, but I’m honestly losing faith and my mind is growing darker every day. I just want to give up so badly, but I have someone counting on me, so I can’t. But, damn it’s hard...

I’m in a weird spot where I contemplated applying to doctoral programs for years and now that deadlines approach I am drained and there are only a few schools that I really think about going to. I’m aware of the logic of “shotgun method” but affectively somethimg isn’t clicking. :P

My dad is strongly considering booking a vacation in the Bahamas over spring break. I really really don't want to go. I think we'll play a little game. If he can physically drag my rear onto the airplane then I'll go. Otherwise, I think I'll just sit on the couch when it's time to leave for the airport and just not move.

Are you crazy? The Bahamas is amazing. In fact, our family’s contingency plan is to flee there in event of original sin leading to atom bomb.

It's a third world dump full of nasty and corrupt government workers, third world water, and is not The USA. It's what Trump would call an s-hole nation. I don't want to go there, I want to stay here for the rest of my life.

When people talk about going to the Bahamas, they mean going to a luxury gringo resort and barely talking to any natives besides the workers there.

Well my sister has a friend that has family in the area, and we plan to stay around there, so it's not even like some gringo resort thing.

I moved from NOVA back to Ohio (:

How long would it be? I took a short trip to an area that wasn't a generic resort, and had a nice time. There are plenty of beaches and island scenery outside of the resorts. There are areas for US day trippers where one can find amenities.

It would be like three or four days long, so if he managed to drag me onto the plane, I'd suck it up and live. Idk where it is exactly though, but somewhere near Nassau I think.

()

became an American citizen today and also filled out a voter registration form at the place. Guess which party I registered with?

Ready to cast my first vote in 2020 for Pres. Donald John Trump and flip New York red (or Atlas Blue)

Lol, you actually think that Trump can win NY

You sound like a caricature of an American - especially a Texan.

Damn immigrants done took our jawbs!

Now that's just sad.

Today I learned that my direct paternal ancestor Sir Willielmus de Leca was the actual Sheriff of Nottingham during the reign of King John.

I'm in line to see HW Bush right now. Apparently they're keeping the Capitol open all night.

Reversing the trends, hmmmm?

Dislocated my knee today for the first time in 4½ months. :'(

More power to you. I was at the Capitol at 8:30 last night after a full day and evening of activities. I worried that the line would take me past midnight and I might not get back to my hotel in New Carrollton.

I got in line just after 6:00. I made it into the rotunda about 9:15, and the line looked like it had doubled by the time I got out. I can't imagine everyone in line stayed until they got in at that point.

I do my part

I just arrived home to find dozens of people from a movie crew literally on my front porch step. Supposedly the Ron Weasley actor was on my porch this evening (or yesterday?)! Too bad! Got home well past midnight the last two nights too so I totally missed out.

I'm getting f!ckin turnt this weekend in Nashville brah lmaoo its gonna rule.

Perhaps I'll leave my room and go see what all this funeral hub-bub is about over at that library...I dunno.

I'm still quite bummed that the Christmas Event I volunteered for got axed because of rain.

Why?

I made a well-received presentation at a conference in KY today. Of particular interest was talking with a member of the audience, State Sen Gabbard of HI, whose daughter is better known to the forum as a Congressperson who is giving things "serious consideration". In the evening we got a concert from Carly Pearce at the Newport Aquarium.

Today is my 17th birthday.

Sorry to hear that. Stay young.

Welcome back!

Recently I got a letter from a family friend asking them to support a city council candidate. However, the city council candidate supports a development project I'm not sure I like, so I didn't respond.

People still send letters?

Jesus, it’s 6 here and the sky could have passed for midnight for the last hour.

Happy belated birthday

~31 hours to submit a takehome final. Also have to edit/finish two papers, prepare for my in-class final on Tuesday, and do some work for my internship. And my first doctoral applications are due the 15th and I still lack my third letter of rec. The schools I really want to attend have the earliest due dates, so it’s a full court press even after finals are done.

Well at least dat bass player?

Haven’t seen her since. She’s affirmed she wants to go out again, but family illness obstructed one weekend and now we’ve both got finals. If I can’t swing anything next weekend, I’d have to say it’s over. That said, I only realized yesterday in a fit of over-caffeinated over-confidence that despite my recurrent anxiety (not the medical kind) and her not being the greatest at texting, I don’t actually have much to worry about.

On my way back from the club in Nashville last night this semi next to me on I-40 near Carthage blew this deer right in half, sent the other half right in front of my car. Luckily it didn't damage my car but it did cover the front of my car with blood and guts.

Since this happened in Carthage I'm convinced it was Al Gore mind-controlling that deer to try to silence me.

Gore has jumped a couple levels up in my book.

It wasn't Al Gore dummy, it was ManBearPig.

Oh boy, I'm gonna have to go to school with a brace and one crutch tomorrow, and limp myself across the largest HS in my county! Yippee!

Finals are basically over. Just got my internship project, grad school apps, and the whole female situation to deal with. :P

:[

what happened?

I dislocated my knee a week ago. :(

What you really need is a little Jeb Healing:

()

Thank you Virginia, very cool!

My adviser has two days to submit my letter of recommendation. :l

I'm working on a new PI scenario.

Here's a preview - I'll let you guess what race it is. ;)

()

At work, we are actually still legally required to send some things in the form of a letter ... I actually kind of like it, LOL.  It's like renting a movie at the movie store!

Letter of rec countdown at the eleventh hour. We've got about 36 hours to finalize. Damn university faculty.

Stomach viruses are so awful. My symptoms have been brutal; up all night doing you can imagine simultaneously from 7pm-4am. My lower back (presumably kidneys) have been killing me, got a 101F fever, and my eyes are burning while also having an awful headache. Definitely not enjoying my weekend.

I have a message for all you who judge a man by his fraternity membership: Today, in a pinch, my undergrad chapter's faculty adviser authored my third letter of rec with only a few hour's notice when one of my original guys (someone who should have done it, by all conventional standards) didn't come through. It's because of him my applications are complete. Hallelujah. Now let's hope that all that fretting and those application fees were worth it.

Life just flies by so fast. I'm on the verge of turning 24 and these past couple years have felt like a couple weeks to me. Back when I was, say, 14 - large amounts of time on internet communities dedicated to niche topics would give me constant exposure to new and interesting ideas. That gravy train of novelty has long ran out by now. While I do enjoy trolling and LARPing on this forum, there are simply too many goals I need to fulfill before my time on Earth is up. I can no longer afford to risk even spending a few seconds of time screwing around on the internet.

I'm not coming back to this forum until I make my first $1,000,000 and when I beat what I like to call "The United States Senate Challenge." Some of you already know what it is. To those of you who don't...it uh..means I intend to travel to all 50 states to 'get involved' with two women from each of them. Of course, I have quite a few other important things to accomplish on top of these two as well.

And yes, I'm being completely serious, even though most won't believe me. Goodbye. Have a nice life in the meantime everyone.

Thank you for admitting your a troll, now if only Icespear would do the same. Then both of you can leave.

Thank you for admitting trolldom and deliberately setting impossible goals for yourself to return.

I'll admit, I laughed.

No lol, you were starting to get funny and a forum institution.

My PI scenario is done!  Download it here. (http://campaigns.270soft.com/2018/12/17/texas-2018-senate/) :]

My cat died on Saturday. Buried her today.  Knew her for 13 years, ever since she was a few months old & hanging around when I moved into my own place and I was able to take her in. She'd been dealing with chronic illness for the past couple years that was often a struggle to manage, so it wasn't completely unexpected something like this would happen at some point.  But it's so surreal, like I'm doubting that it really finally happened. I took care of her the best I knew how, but I keep feeling like I dropped the ball.  I love her so much.   All my habits suddenly feel out of place and I need to make a change to be sane but I'm not sure what or where or how.

I'm so sorry for your loss, shua :(

Just popping in to check how's the forum doing. I don't anticipate being here now, so early Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukah/Happy Holiday to you all.

According to this one dude at my HS, this one gal posted a picture of me in class on Snapchat with the statement of something like "this dude thinks he's cute and knows everything," obviously negatively. But the funny thing is that's probably the complete opposite of the truth. I've hated my body and looks and how they contrast with me as a person, even with gender dysphoria and constant disgust of myself. Oh, and "he thinks he knows everything?" Bullsh**t. I probably think I'm dumber than I am. I know trivial sh**t, like what the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is, but I couldn't tell you for the life of me anything of actual importance. So yeah, oof.

Now, a normal person would just not care, but lil' ol' pansy Koopa decided to silently tear at myself for a body that I couldn't choose, as well as continue my normal ritual of hating myself for no real reason. Why is it that whenever I go through low self-esteem, and try to fix it by liking myself a little, I feel disgusted at liking myself, and go through low self-esteem all over again? Sigh, I don't like having to go through 4 years straight of depression, even though it gets dismissed as "not really depressed" and "too young to go through this." I guess several suicide attempts in the past didn't raise any flags.

Oh boy, I'm in a shorter brace that really only covers the knee. Also, I can kick now, and sitting down is a little less awkward, especially in school desks. When winter break starts, I'll probably ditch my crutch. So woohoo, a little more freedom! :D

Get a thicker skin, you won’t regret it.

There’s this old dude in the break room at work asking Siri to look up stuff about Monika Lewinsky and the Clintons. He’s always watching something or saying something about Hillary Clinton. He really dislikes her, yet he’s so obsessed with her. It’s weird af

It's my birthday! I started off the day by chipping a tooth and being late to Calc.

Happy Birthday West! oof at being late to Calc and your tooth.

Thank you

i've been finding some comfort in imaging her in the arms of the Good Shepherd

It was going fantastic until recently. The past week or so he's basically cut me out of his life and won't tell me why. We're cordial at work but he's going through "some stuff" and won't tell me what. I don't want to give up on him but I feel like there's nothing I can do and it's driving me bonkers

I was invited to a party by a good friend of mine from back in the day and his fiancée and there’s a girl they want me to meet, but I am not vibing with the whole society thing right now and it’s a whole drive.

Nothing matters and what if it did?

I'm guessing the whole bass player deal is done.

I understand you. My first relationship felt like a dream until it crashed, all because of him, and I was deeply scarred emotionally.
I can't really judge what's happening to you, but my ex was a coward who couldn't face me and tell me what he felt to my face. There WAS nothing I could do, I realize in retrospect, and him breaking up with me was the best decision he made. So I'll just say this- if it's a similar situation, move on and learn from it. Eventually, you'll find someone who truly appreciates you and is truly honest with you. I know I did, in very unexpected circumstances- it'll happen.

Far more that I may be in a weeks-drawn out ghosting (surely there’s another name for this) punctuated by random rays of hope. In any case, last night was a non-entity.

Look forward to continuing my long Christmas tradition of watching Die Hard on my last flight before Christmas.

 ()

I've been away recently due to some health issues, which seems to be solved.

Somehow I took leave of my sense and decided to trust the government to not foul up something important.

My parents have been paying for my health insurance, but this year I had the bright idea to try and save them a bunch of money by applying to Medicaid. The healthcare.gov website told me I'm supposedly eligible, but this is the first year of the expanded program here and I haven't been able to get an answer from the state as to if or when I'd hear back from them. (I tried calling last week but they told me they had a computer glitch in the system and couldn't tell me my status)   And if for some reason I'm denied or my plan is completely worthless, it will be too late to get private insurance unless I can get a special exemption.  So I could be going without health insurance for at least part of the year.

I also tried the healthcare.gov webzone after being told I'm off medicaid this summer. I'm then told I'm eligible for medicaid.

and Christmas Eve is when I get the bills from the doctor's after 3 months. Sky high. Thanks Obama and congressional dinocrats for being neoliberal pussies.

I will be tantalizingly close to visiting Kalawao County, but sadly the logistics won’t work out. An excuse to visit again, I suppose.

Dang! My dad was talking about going to Molokai to get that county when he and my mom went to Hawaii. They didn’t have the time either.

dude owes me nearly $1,000 and isn't paying me bcuz he's "in debt" well figure it out dude, go take out a loan or something because u were supposed to pay me over a month ago.

this is what i get for being nice and loaning money to people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXId5jOTxdg

They definitely missed out. It was one of the highlights of my life, I suspected it would be, so I planned the time from the outset.

https://youtu.be/SD1n-DKUIeE

So far, my old UU church has validated my concerns they weren't as ready as they thought they were for what they're wanting to do.

I ended up deciding that while strictly speaking I'm not 100% onboard with The Book of Concord, my beliefs line up well enuf with several of the churches that the ELCA is in full communion with that joining doesn't violate my conscience. Hence, I'll be joining despite The Book of Concord indicating a belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary. (I'm agnostic on the issue of the virgin birth, but a belief that the means that God provided for humanity to be fruitful and multiply is sinful and therefore perpetual virginity is a prerequisite for the mother of Jesus is crazy, IMO.)

The official becoming a member of the ELCA is scheduled for January 27. (The Revised Common Lectionary readings for that Sunday other than the gospel reading speak to my reasons for making the switch. I'm not presumptuous enuf to think Luke 4:14-21 speaks to my situation.) I'll probably be going out with a bang from my old church on January 6. I think I've laid out my reasons respectfully and with a minimum of drama, but one never knows how rejection will be received.

gonna get plastered tonight and tomorrow night brah

My sister got her first car today. Subaru Forester 2019.

Me: I’m having a really nice morning. The weather is nice, the traffic was light, everything is going great right now.

My long-term memory: Yeah but what about that scene in Apocalypse Now where the water buffalo gets hacked to death

I think last night I may have just tasted the best fried chicken in my 60 years. I'm often looking at ideas for where to stop for food on the road, and one suggestion was A Q Chicken House in Springdale AR. I had the chicken sampler which included a traditional fried breast, coal-fired thigh, and a BBQ sauced leg. The first two were out of this world, juicy but not greasy. The BBQ sauce was a little too sloppy for my taste, but it's probably great if you like your sauce heavy. If you can get to NW AR bring your appetite and some wetnaps.

dude i overdid it on the tequila at the party tonight lmao

New year so I finished my dues to my lost bet. Phew, feels so good and relieving to not have to have Ocasio as my sig anymore, so new sig now!

FF sig!

Haven't done as much international travel as I would have liked the past few years, so I booked a trip to Argentina and Brazil for this April.  Looking forward to seeing somewhere new!

Be prepared to be stuck in Brazil and not be allowed to leave due to an emigration ban likely to be imposed by Jail Bolsonaro.

Gosh some of y’all are getting so worked up over him lol

Saw the bass player girl again over the weekend. Hm.

Got one of my teeth pulled.  Glad it's gone, but it feels weird still to have 31 teeth after a decent quarter century with all of them.

I decided to poll my Facebook feed (largely the same vein of movement conservatism that I am) on a hypothetical Romney vs. Trump 2020 primary, and it is a nail-biter right now!  Trump currently leads 51% to 49%, and it's going back and forth.

damn how many friends you got on fb?

I once did a poll on facebook asking whether the ceiling or the sky was what's up, the results were interesting, all my friends who voted for "the ceiling" were male and all my friends who voted for "the sky" were female. lmao

Probably about 1000 friends or so, but this is out of 76 voters.  Trump led 39 to 37 when I posted this.  A slight gender gap with women going 55% Romney and men going 54% Trump (more men than women have voted).

Will provide the final numbers tomorrow night.

When I was home alone today, a glass slipped out of my hand because it was wet and shattered in the dishwasher, and a few chunks nicked me on my hand, including one on my wrist. It had no potential to be fatal, but it could have been worse, and it still somehow reminded me of the fragility of life and despite my youth, I'm not invincible. I guess life is kind of like a glass. You can be empty or full or half full or whatever with many things, but you won't last forever, and when you break and cease to exist in present form, so goes your attitude and whatever else you had... kind of sad.

stop spying on me Google :\

()

(and no, I wasn't searching the color. I misspelled an eCommerce platform name)

Now that's hardcore--they've been spying on you for a decade to prepare for this moment!

We're all gonna be alright guys. I know some of you probably had it rough recently but better days are on the horizon. It's never too late for things to improve.

Barring any late movement, it looks like Trump has this vote.  He has 52.6% of the 95 votes cast in my informal poll.

So I met a girl at an Indian wedding that I really fancied, and we basically spent the whole of the second night just talking to each other. Obviously I did nothing; and it doesn't really matter because she lives in Abu Dhabi and I'll never see her again. But you'd figure it should be pretty obvious when to make a move right? [/rant]

Women. Can’t live in the same country as them, can’t live without ‘em.

Going to visit my Christian part of my family for Christmas tomorrow (They're Greek Orthodox and follow the Julian Calendar Christmas), as a Muslim it should be interesting.

My senator has been the president pro-tempore for 3 (4 in 39 minutes) days and I just realized that now. I mean, I knew before he was sworn in, but I completely forgot.

Scrambling to get my last grad school apps in. Thank God for lower ranked schools that are willing to work with applicants. One school is basically done; I just need to edit my writing sample and pay them. For the other it seems like they’ll bend over backwards to make me admissible. :P Of course, if I’m lucky, all this will be for naught. The big name school apps are already in.

There’s an old guy at my work who literally listens to some country music song about Hillary Clinton being a liar, should be in jail, etc... on like full blast in the break room even with a bunch of people in there. I’ve heard him talking to Siri, asking about Hillary Clinton a couple times before as well. Literally every single time I’m in the break room with him (basically every day), he’s preoccupied with Hillary Clinton. What the hell is wrong with some people? It was 2 years ago, leave it the hell alone.

Not if you’re an incel.

Go in there and blast some salvos back of "fight song", if he is obsessed with HRC as much as you claim, he'll recognize it immediately.

Tried to see Gavin Newsom’s inauguration. Couldn’t get in without a ticket. Skulked around the capitol for an hour, saw Jerry Brown and shook hands with Nancy Pelosi. Saw the swearing in ceremony and part of Newsom’s speech on a TV in the capitol cafeteria. Free hot dogs outside thanks to one of the big labor unions!

I found the song he plays constantly: https://youtu.be/U8m5gxCiOYk

watching USD/JPY like a hawk brah

Damn. Burn. :\

I overslept and missed the DeSantis inauguration, but then again, I have class at two anyway.

2019 has begun as literally the worst year in my life. Days after almost losing my job and needing to pay $630 in emergency bills, I crash into a truck after less than 5 months in my awesome little car on an unsalted road. Ohio weather is just wonderful, one day thunderstorms with 50F weather next day SUDDEN BLIZZARD.

Things could be worse: I have no health insurance as Obamacare referred me back to state medicaid and they're never going to contact me after kicking me off last summer. I have no choice but to find a private provider.

The public option will never happen. People don't realize it, especially people like me, but Atlas is a pro-labor anti-neoliberal bubble. I tried talking to Democrats on another forum and they were singing praises of Bush Jr. and were confused as to why I, a fair trader, wasn't just going to vote for Trump. After all I'm a "single issue voter" (wrong) "for corporate rent seeking"

The cherry on top is where I go to play DND with friends, it's become as loud as a school cafeteria and I wasn't able to have fun.

Sorry to here that bageldude. I know well wishes can ring hollow when people aren’t in a position to help, but hoping everything works out.

Thank you.

I'm an intern for the MD General Assembly now. Today was opening day. Shook hands with Gov. Hogan (second time meeting him, first time in MD) and immediately afterwards his security detail pushed me literally into Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford. It was kinda awkward but it was an accident so I just shook Rutherford's hand and moved on.

Hogan is very down to earth, personable, and easygoing, while Rutherford seems unsure of himself, introverted, and like he always has somewhere else he'd rather be. I can't see Rutherford running for office (successfully) at the top of a ticket. As an introvert I can relate but still.

()

So, the gossip today from the crazy Clinton obsessed guy at my work in the employee lounge is that:

Michele Obama went to a doctor and it’s proven she’s a man. The Obama’s are going to be giving their children back to the real parents soon.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are being investigated for treason against America.
Chelsea Clinton is not Bill’s legitimate daughter; Hillary committed adultery and she’s the child of another man.

It's like they're projecting everything their President did on the evil Democrats. Sad!

Wait, Melania's transitioning?!

Dude a "Free Wall Street, Occupy Tehran" political movement would be so lit.

I just got wicked drunk for the first time in my life, vomit and all.  I had two glasses of what I thought was regular beer but was actually moonshine, and since I'm usually not a drinker I couldn't tell the difference.

Live and learn.

Oh Good Lord, been there done that. Is the room spinning like a plane about to crash? :P

It was. :P

I puked my brains out and then slept for like two hours.  My mom had to check if I was still breathing.

Guys I made a video explaining my views on aliens

https://youtu.be/K8Ut7HOqlq8

... Did you just buy a bottle labeled “alcohol”??

My mom bought what I thought was regular booze.  I had one glass and got a little tipsy and should've stopped there, but I went for another figuring that I have a big build and normally don't react strongly to substances.  Later I read the bottle and saw that it was 100 proof.

I never had moonshine before, but I did learn a lesson I'll never forget.

That's interesting actually, I recently had a friend tell me that all the violence at the gilets jaunes was down to the Antifa - and that there were actually loads of terrorist attacks committed by Antifa, but the only reason we never hear about them is because there is a media cover up.

It's, um, fascinating how some people just create truths for themselves

I have never had moonshine (well, REAL moonshine, anyway), but wouldn't your first taste be jarring enough to prevent a second?? :P

I would think so, which is why I am so confused. In any case, his alternation of terms between "booze" and "beer" throws this further into confusion.

I've had "real" moonshine only once, when I was at the (now defunct) YeeHaw Junction Bluegrass festival. Some old lady handed me a jar, said "take a swig and pass it down," and naturally I obeyed.

I drank some of that fake Publix moonshine that they sell in the liquor stores and got drunker than I've ever been on that. I drank half the jar in like two hours and thought I was dying of alcohol poisoning.

Flying back to Norman. Considering going back to D-OK.

More interesting hot takes from the crazy old guy at work...

An undocumented Mexican immigrant killed an American boy with his car before Christmas, that’s why we need the wall.

Trump is going to declare a national emergency for the wall’s money and martial law so that he’ll have the power to fire anyone he wants, so all of the Democrats will be fired. It’ll finally clear out the government of the trash so Trump can do what he promised but couldn’t because of Democrats.

All football players who kneel during the national anthem are disrespecting the flag, so they all must be fired. Trump needs to make sure they’re fired.

Apparently he fought in Vietnam for America’s freedom and the Democrats are taking our freedoms away. So, Trump needs to declare martial law and throw out the Democrats.

...Today marks the first year I'm closer to 40 than 10, and I've done almost nothing with my life....

Time to record that concept album!

Dish dish dish!

I know an undocumented Mexican illegal immigrant killed a cop. Didn't hear about the boy. But yeah, build that wall!

Can he please fire Nancy Pelosi?

Was he wearing a "Big Govt Sucks!" t-shirt? You should get him one. He'd like it.

I'm sold. This (presumably elderly) gentleman sounds like a TRUH patriot. Tell him to not use all the Tiki oil up in one night thought, fascising gets expensive. :P

I’m currently fuming at the expensive book fees I’ll pay for this semester alone. $450 and only $70 saved after scouring for like a day. Worst part of it is that the school bundles obscure reading material together to avoid third party purchases.

All in all, my schooling for the new semester needs a $1000 up front excluding loans. I’m pretty depressed that in all that no deals got served my way. How do you other students feelin’ about the ritual tragedy of textbooks?

I have no doubt at all that he’d love a shirt like that lol.

Overall, he’s a nice guy. He says good morning to everyone, gets along with the Black folks and immigrants (and even tries to talk politics with them smh), and is just a friendly person, despite his... eccentricities. He particularly likes stopping and talking to me and asking me to help him with some of his work; I always help him too. Imagine his surprise if he discovered my views :P

So, I did pretty much nothing besides a Sunday drive. Opened up a card from Granny Smith, it was nice.

But no matter, yesterday was packed, and tomorrow's packed anyway.

...Perhaps I'll do more next year, but eh, it's all been a bummer since I turned 23 three years ago anyway.

I usually rent my books from Amazon or sell the ones I already have, ones I will probably never need again. I remember last semester I shelled out an absurd amount for just a few books and felt terrible afterwards. Book prices are ridiculous and it's a shame that they are so high.

Payroll tax season is killing me brah, gotta get all these out by Jan 31

Guess who's going to be inside Parliament during the biggest vote since 1940...

Started a course at university on populism. Eagerly awaiting the class on Montana's senior senator.

Got a 2 hour delay today! :D

That's nothing! The voters in Steve King's district got a two-year delay yesterday.

It just occurred to me that there was an election between Mike Pence and Rupert from Survivor (and some Democrat too), and I don't know why, but I can't stop laughing at that image.

How was it?

Shilling for God King Neil Abercrombie

Something interesting clearly.

Also, two days ago, the entity that has taken up the being once known as mother [actual mother probably died about a year or two ago, and it's probably five tops before the physical body catches up] decided to take a walk at night. It somehow managed to go four miles in the rain for what should've been a block [lucky that the neighborhood is relatively safe and secluded].

Only reason I had any idea of what was going on was because I happened to see a bunch of cops with searchlights patrolling around the area...and I happened to be paranoid enough to think it was an elaborate speed trap.

Officially starting hormones tomorrow!

lol I had to break this pledge because I got banned from Discord for dumb BS and had to log back into Atlas to reconnect with some of the users

I'll be gone again soon enough

also another reason I am leaving Atlas is because recent STD results show that I have syphilis and am not sure when I even got it. Might have had it for a while now I dunno

Time to open up the good stuff.

()

Very nice. I decided to drink local.

()

I think I can safely say Atlas had nothing to do with that.

yeah of course Atlas had nothing to do with that. You think I got it by...uh...fraternizing with an Atlas user? Sheesh. That's a scary thought.

i'm gonna make another youtube video tonight for atlas <3

anyone have topics recommendations? I've already done aliens and believing in urself and drinking a bottle of whisky straight, and then like interviewing kentuckians so like what else should i do

Holy sh!t, I did something right.

The US government should actively work more to block and censor ISIS and other terrorist propaganda on the web, and don’t care about the people screaming 1st amendment.

Update: My mental health has improved substantially now that I'm on hormones, but this morning, I remembered that I'm still not out in public, so I have two options: Push myself out of the closet on Wednesday or go back in with my tail (and something else ;)) between my legs. Honestly, the former doesn't sound too bad right now. It's my last semester anyway, and I'm gonna need something to do my senior presentation about, because I doubt Vice Presidents will cut it.

It's not my best pic of a lunar eclipse, but I didn't feel like more set up at 3^o to get a longer shot (with a sharper image) of last night's eclipse.

()

It was so cloudy when I went outside at about 11 CT that I couldn't see anything.  I heard it may have cleared a bit right around the end of totality, but I didn't get to see it.  Oh well, I saw the total solar eclipse without obstruction in 2017.

Ran 8 miles in a single day for the first time since I was 16 years old yesterday. Granted I split it up into four 2 mile runs at the top of every hour.

Nice! Been putting off buying new running shoes for months, and because of that my cardio has been primarily confined to bikes. After I pay off school it'll definitely be one of my first purchases.

Thanks! Yeah any appropriate distance running will require getting a good pair of shoes.

When you have a 6-point lead on your home floor against your arch-rival (who happens to be ranked #1) with a minute to go and (with the assistance of the referees) find a way to blow the game, it is such a terrible feeling

The Squeaky Wheel Gets Replaced.

You know I'm just now realizing the crowd I've been hanging out with for a year or so now are like, hippies but also "dude weed lmao libertarian atheists" and I think they've been influencing me.

Like a few nights ago my fiancee and I were hanging out with some of our friends and we all basically started talking our different ideas on aliens, how the government and religion were scams, and how we should go to Bonaroo this year. At least I see where it's coming from now lol.

Each of the last two years we've taken a vacation in late January to escape a bit of winter (2017 Masquite NV, 2018 Newport Beach CA). I book these in the late fall, and to get a deal I have limited choices of location and dates. This week we are in Myrtle Beach where it will be cool in the 40's and 50's but the timing is ideal to beat the subzero temps in Chicagoland. We even get two days (one night) in Charleston, so I won't just be in Myrtle Beach.

Going to Kamala’s launch rally with some friends

Don't elites like you prefer "luncheon"?

I’m sorry about that.

TIL I’m an elite

Got rejected by one of my preferred schools today. Between that and recent contact with faculty at another institution, I'm starting to prepare myself for/warm to the idea of going to a smaller local school. Of course, I've got to decide it's worth it.

Assuming people's socioeconomic status is a bad habit. You're not the only working class guy here.

Yeah a lot of Atlas users have a bad issue about assuming people's lives based on their political views, and basically view anyone as an "traitor" or something when a user on here doesn't fit in the little box that they put each demographic group in.

I'm pretty much by all measures, white working class, but Atlas is like "You're not real white working class!!!"  and claim I'm an elitist. It's stupid af.

My mind has been so ed for the past year now. I always beat myself up for no reason, but I just genuinely think there's no way I could actually do it. I'm an ugly boy, and that's just something I need to admit to myself. I can't do it. I'm not a girl. There's no way I could fit in. I just can't imagine a way in which I'm not a disgusting freak show. I need to stop lying to myself. I can't be a girl. It's something I need to admit to myself before I ruin myself. I'll never be valid. I'll never love myself. I'll never be happy.

We Atlasians like you. It does not matter how you look, most of us think you are an ff. If you can have such status on an online platform with strangers, I am sure that you either have or can achieve it in real life. You are not alone, both in the sense that this is the norm for millions people our age out there and for what it is worth, you will always have someone to talk to. If not people in your real life, there are many here in the Atlasian community that are available to talk to, so you may be in hardship, but you will never be completely alone. I wish there was more that we could do, but I can promise that you will never be unheard and alone. I know from personal experience that things ring like a hollow tree when things are not backed up physically, but better to have a tree, hollow or not, than none at all.

SFO-EWR red-eye. 777 Gulag completely full. Almost half the flight is 1K or GS lol. Welcome to Sunday night.

Not bad.

Red-eyes are the best way to switch sides of the country quickly. But then, I much prefer traveling anywhere at night.

I know you consider what I'm about to say to be on par with HISgate, but pretty much every trans woman has felt that way, either now or before. Before hormones I cried myself to sleep telling myself that. I still worry about that but it's not as hard on me now for some reason.

Making it a personal goal to read https://twitter.com/redditships/ for laughs before work instead of sooper serious political and world news

Life is too depressing. Better to laugh at things like:

https://twitter.com/redditships/status/1087724347266138112

This is a very sad post.  It seems as if you have wondered if you’re trans and are not sure and it’s all severely obscured by low self esteem and body image issues.  I don’t know if you already do, but talking to a counselor is a good idea.  Most likely your school has one and you can approach them.  They can help or get you in touch with someone who can help.

 Lots of teens go through exactly what you’re going through.  I can guarantee you the ones who can talk about it and find help from someone trained to help end up much happier in the long run than those who dont.

Should I go get plastered with friends when it's Monday night right before I need payroll taxes done and tonight there is supposed to be a snowstorm?

I think yes.

I'm the fact that my still-half-closeted ass almost started crying because my teacher (who doesn't know I'm trans, as far as I know) deadnamed me in the example of saying "red hair" in Spanish.

Got home at 9:40pm and pigged out on a smorgasbord of Pollo Tropical chicken and stuff

Am now thoroughly disgusted by myself :[

God is real.

So...I came out to a teacher at school today about how I'm questioning my identity.

Needless to say, he was pretty freaking supportive. I consider it a big success, not gonna lie. :)

Interestingly:  Smorgasbord means "sandwich board"... smorgas refers to an open faced sandwich which is commonly eaten in Scandinavia and Germany in the traditionally non-main meals of the day.  They are often served to guests as well.

Smor means "butter" but it is where we get the word smear from.  Gas refers to goose, and together they refer to the chunks of butter that float when you churn the milk.

So you literally had a Smear-goose board of pollo tropical chicken and stuff.

Santander is a liar.

We've had a two-hour delay every day this week, for snow on Wednesday and today and cold the other days. I appreciate being able to sleep in, but I'm pretty excited tbh for the nice weather next week and hopefully getting on track with my classes.

In terms of credible witnesses, I know whose side I'm on.

I just told my mother that I have a boyfriend. She already knew I'm gay but is pretty sensitive about it so it was a big moment for me, but we're together for four months already so it was overdue.

She reacted with some disappointment (because she still hopes I magically turn straight\bi) but it was much less drama than my first coming out several years ago, and she actually asked some question and was interested. I hope she tells my father since I don't really know how to talk emotions with him, and that I'll be able to invite my boyfriend to meet my parents soon enough :)

So proud of this country tonight. Thank you, America.

WE WON THE SUPER BOWL LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

e: oh god i accidentally stretched the page let's cut that mess out so it's normal

On one hand, I want to put my actual name on this fake resume I'm supposed to be making for English class, but on the other hand I know I should probably put my birth name instead.

I came out as a socialist.

Given that PM score you got there, seems that closet still has some armor.

My fiancee and I are going to start the K1 visa process, and all I can say is that it's a best a hassle, and at worst a living nightmare. The rejection rate of these visas has increased substantially since Trump took office, and while some of that may be because they're catching more fraud, but no doubt many people with legitimate relationships are getting turned down. Why? Because immigration officials are looking for reasons to turn applicants down, and trying to set up traps in the interview process. O top of that, it's taking longer and longer, so two people who are engaged have to spend more time apart. And then there's the cost of it all, which is absolutely absurd, and a ton to ask of people who are at least relatively young.

My fiancee has said that she feels like she's being treated as a criminal, less than human due to the process, since she has to get vaccinations which she got as a kid a second time, she needs to go to enormous effort to provide evidence of her character and intentions, and has heard people who have gone through the process talk about how officials in the interview process have called them liars to their face, even when they were telling the truth. I've also heard some very... unsavory things about what goes on in consulates and some of the orders that they're given, but I can't really speak freely about that or give any specifics.

This is the main reason why my opposition to Trump is personal. I'm not just some snobby wealthy coastal elitist who scoffs at his behavior. His presidency really is affecting the life of my fiancee (and in turn, mine,) and the changes his administration has made to the immigration process, and the impact his rhetoric has had on American consulates could end up preventing me from being with the person I love, unless I decide to actually move out of America.

I have to wonder how many people who support Trump actually realize how he is affecting the lives of immigrants and families of immigrants. I want to believe that some would have second thoughts if they were in my shoes, or walked a mile in the shoes of my fiancee or someone trying to immigrate here legally and do everything right. Slogans like "we need border security", "we can't just let anyone in", and "we need to protect American jobs" may sound nice, but too often they're used by politicians as an excuse for being downright inhumane.

Sorry about the long post, I just had to vent a bit. TL;DR: I may not get to live with my fiancee in this country due to the changes the Trump administration, especially not-serial killer Stephen Miller, has made to the immigration system.

Oh I've not updated that in years. Probably should.

Edit:

Economic score: -7.1
Social score: -8.00

Whoo.

Welcome aboard, comrade!

I love Oscar Munoz. He's doing a great job.

Transmission leak again. It may be my transportation situation, more than anything else, that pushes me to move into a Real Person^TM job. Been driving this barrel of trash around since 2014 and it's caused nothing but trouble.

Apparently for the winter, Michael Dukakis lives on the same crummy street in Westwood that I do.

roll on, there's mountains to climb

Bought a dress. Dress was almost too big to fit in my bag. Decided to put on dress to remove stress on backpack. Couldn't figure out which way was up and wound up ruining the dress.

EDIT: The damage was primarily based on the interior, meaning that the dress is still functional. Unfortunately, it's still too small--Can't zip it up and it's crushing my stomach.

I lived, bitch.

Anyways, over the past two months, I've shed 15 pounds through more dieting (I don't eat fast food as much as I used to, and if I do, I typically don't eat much for the rest of the day), so I'm down from 210 lbs at Christmas to 195 lbs now. Fairly proud of that, but I'm 15 shy of my summer goal.

()

I haven't degenerated nearly this much, but on day four of working from home I am wearing soccer pants and a hoodie, and this worries me.

Welcome back!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZytaW5DxRw

I was trying to do that cool spinny trick on the table with the smoke but like the table sucked brah.

People at my working class job in Portage County were talking about how horrible Trump is and blaming him for people not ordering anything from the business. I was almost fooled into thinking they're not going to vote for him next year. Fortunately, because I am an enlightened member of USElectionAtlas Dot Org, Trump can be safe knowing they are in his column because Ohio is Missouri now.

Those Trump-Dewine voters will flock to Kamala.

"BUT MUH 2012"
Lol
Seriously though, while I don't think Portage will get much redder, I think it will vote R in 2020.

Tonight, I've finally been able to accept and admit to myself what I've somewhat known for a while and have been told that I have by those living with this condition and those educated on it. I have PTSD. It's gotten better over time, but it hasn't gone away. All that has really happened is that I've been pretty well removed from my worst "triggers" and able to exist without too much intense stress. Now that I've gotten a new job, one that's in retail, fast-paced, and heavily customer service oriented, I've noticed my old symptoms reappearing and making life very difficult for me.

I have constant brain fog, which is sometimes so bad that it completely ruins my short term memory. For example, two days ago I was labeling documents for a customer, turned my focus to something else for a moment, then returned and asked them who labeled that document. They looked at me with shock and said, "you just did that." Things like that are common for me at work now. My hearing is also awful when I'm like that, I can hardly retain any information, I constantly catch myself holding my breath, and I feel like I'm on some kind of autopilot that I'm not controlling when it gets particularly bad (like when a customer is being awful, especially yelling, which is a major trigger for me).

I hate that my mind's like this and I know that I need counseling and medication, which I'll hopefully be able to receive now that I finally have insurance (despite me fighting having to go to a doctor - especially a counselor). It kind of feels good to accept it and my experiences over the years make more sense in light of this revelation. But, where to go from here, especially with the limitations it places on me (even if only temporarily)...

Are you a combat vet or something?

No. PTSD is most commonly associated with combat veterans, but it can occur from any single or series of traumatic events and how your mind reacts to it. For me, it stems from having an abusive, alcoholic father. But, I imagine the constant instability and poverty; a chronically depressed and borderline suicidal mother; and, presumably, a weaker ability to handle the stress of that situation than many others might have contributed to that as well.

Missed almost a full week of work due to the flu but finally getting better

Hopefully my capitalist overlords will have mercy on me

Passport renewal is a b*&ch.

But the alternative was to go the DMV and get one of those REAL-ID ones, and given that I literally got my renewed license just a week or two before, I'm just not so inclined.

but they voted for Brown over Jim "Fitzgerald with a license" Renacci.

Try Trump-Brown-Cordray voters.

As I mentioned in the relapse thread, all the progress I reported about my brother proved to be shattered within a few hours of posting it.

Yep, just like those Obama/Brown voters flocked to Jeb Bush, who was selected by the base of the Republican party to be their 2016 nominee.

I’m really, truly sorry to hear that, Sanchez. God bless.

The addiction your brother is fighting is an uniquely awful one. Not many people who become addicted are able to kick the addiction - even with serious intervention. I just hope that, in time? Your brother finds some method of kicking his addiction that works for him. I can sympathize with how difficult your situation is, as his brother - but don’t ever lose hope. Anything can happen, my friend.

I grew up in a family of addicts. My brother in particular has only ever been clean from heroin in the past 7+ years when he’s in jail. I have no useful advice other than to learn from his behavior and to never internalize his failures or feel responsible for them.

Thanks for the kind words, everybody! It means a lot. My brother got out this morning but his girlfriend fell asleep with the car still running in the parking lot and thus they are currently stuck with a dead battery outside the jail. My dad is going to give them a jump start, but after that they’re on their own. Fortunately they just got their own place, and my brother still has a lot of savings built up (even if a third of it disappeared to fund this last Xanax, coke, and alcohol bender), so he should be able to get started again....hopefully....and if he ditches the GF.

Sanchez, this may be the wrong time to ask this, but have you ever read Infinite Jest? I only ask because a substantial portion of its 1000+ pages is devoted to characters in a halfway house.

Almost pulled a MILF. I was down, but nothing says "abort mission" like asking you if you have a certain STD.

I had a MILF once, except when I got to her place it turned out her pictures were like from 2009. Will try again.

Just got home from my trip to Atlanta this weekend, it was lit as all hell. I got to party at a celebrity mansion in Buckhead, so that was probably the best thing I ever got to do in my life.

I love massive cities. Coming home to this rural area sucks. When I was sitting in bumper to bumper traffic in downtown Atlanta at 4 PM on Friday, I was actually enjoying it (I know it's weird that I like traffic, but whatever) but like, the whole urban feel rocks.

Rejected from my choice schools. Hoping to change jobs soon so hopefully this is all irrelevant.

Sucks, man, sorry to hear that.  Hoping for a happy (or at least happier) ending to the setback. :/

Started working as the committee clerk for a TX Senate committee this last week. Nice change of pace.

I guess it doesn't matter or whatever, but I'm currently living with my gf and I start my first full time job on Monday. It took long enough after I graduated college (2 months) but it feels like it's finally paying off.

Took me ‘til August after graduation in May of that same year. :P Journalism, right?

That was my degree, yeah. Working in customer service for a lawn care company, though. Not many good paying jobs left in my field, unfortunately.

gz, man

So apparently, the TV in my living room has an internet browser built in, and Atlas actually works! I'm posting this off of it right now. I actually got a USB mouse and keyboard plugged in as typing with a remote is a chore, but as I kept typing, it kept reloading the page, so I decided to give both of my hands a long and gruesome workout.

Lol, that seems inconvenient.

I don't have a job. Again. :(

#PerpetuallyUn(der)employed

Why am I being recommended Ben Shapiro videos while watching Bernie videos?

F[inks] off Ben.

I get The Internationale and Risen from Ruins a lot.