Speaking for the back row without realising it, especially when I’m passionate about the subject.

I still haven’t figured out how to prevent it, people frequently tell me that I start bellowing after a point in my discourse. And that’s on top of having a naturally resonant voice…

Honestly, I’d go the full cyborg route, like in Ghost in the Shell. This would be my first step toward adjusting my consciousness to existing within and controlling an artificial environment, ultimately aiming for fully uploaded consciousness. I’d want to exist as a cyborg for a couple of decades, then I want to be uploaded into an autonomous space probe with as many sensor types as possible and left to explore the Universe (+/- relativistic speeds, I don’t really care). BUT I’d also want the possibility to erase myself, because I most certainly wouldn’t want to live forever. At least, not as I see it now. This is the purely sci-fi version.

In the realistic version, a cybernetic eye and a logic co-processor to increase my background process bandwidth. Sure, a brain-computer interface would also be nice, but I somehow suspect I’d get nostalgic for the clackety-clacks and would most likely revert to analog interfacing after a point (for which I’d like that “fingers within fingers” prosthetic from GitS).

Unless, of course, Musk (or any other such) will be handling said cybermods, in which case none, thanks. I’d rather just decay and die as a basic human being than have such people tinker with my bits.

Not even close. Take Foundation, for instance. The show is ok in itself, but when compared to the books, it neglects so many vital details (in my opinion) that it became downright frustrating to watch after a point, subtitles or no. As a positive example, The Shining the movie and The Shining the book are both brilliant works of art, but are very different all in all.

As for brushing my teeth, after breakfast/coffee (I serve both immediately after waking up, because I usually wake up starving and groggy).

As a Romanian, tipping here does very much help Hospitality/Delivery workers, as our wages are deep down the toilet.

Our tipping culture is (or was, at least) pretty similar to the US’s, 10-15% as a standard tip, 20% if you’re flush and the service was notable (checking up on you occasionally, helping you make sense of things if need be, polite, nothing over-the-top). Same thing goes for delivery people.

Nowadays, I suspect people have somewhat maintained the ratios, although this comes mostly as an anecdotal observation - I started tipping 20-25%, or even double that if I’m ordering groceries (because I stock up for weeks, so it’s quite a bit to carry), and a LOT of delivery people have remarked that it was the largest tip they’d ever received (as an average example, about a 20RON ~ $4 tip to a 100RON ~ $21 food order).

Thank you! Yeah, it hit us pretty badly… Well, to be fair, every loss wrecked us, because we never treated pets as pets, but as family members, but that was the first death I ever experienced in my life. Taught me a very valuable (although unfortunate) lesson about human beings, too…

I always choose based on personality, or let them choose for themselves if they’re especially chatty.

Some examples:

• Screech, male cat, got him after weaning and the only things he could vocalise were variations of screeches. So, Screech. Also worked well with the fact that he had a full black coat, so you’d always hear him first.

• Mimi, female cat. Found by one of my former coworkers next to an apartment building stairway, asked her what she’d like to be called. She said: “meeee…” in the cutest, squeakiest way imaginable. I asked and what else. “Meeee…” again, so that was that. She ended up earning it, she was exuberantly inquisitive and playful.

• Maia, female cat. It was the most feminine name to also have a sort of benevolent but tired aristocratic aloofness. She was always bothered by your unrequested presence, always complaining with a bored chain smoker’s croon of “mmmmaaawwwww…” She also obsessively groomed every living thing she had in her proximity, including a chicken (the only one dumb enough to not run away) and a hamster.

• Lord, male dog. He was fucking majestic, looked like a miniature lion with black, white and copper stripes (about as large as a Golden Retriever). And he owned that name, always lording over the place. Ironically, got poisoned by an envious neighbor (I’m serious).

• Ralph, the (happy) exception, male dog. So, this guy, had been my brother since I turned 10. First time I met him, he was slobbering. And he was a German Shepherd / Alsacian mix, these guys don’t usually drool a lot afaik. But my guy was dripping. So, naturally, I wanted to call him Spit. I mean… naturally! Luckily, mum intervened with this one and declared him Ralph, because it was the friendliest* German name she could think of at the time. And he wore it well, he was always vivacious, but calculated.

Moon.

I usually forget to buy something while grocery shopping, whether it be in person, or ordering. There’s no pattern behind it, the items are completely unrelated to a theme (eg. coffee, soap, mouthwash, bread, milk, eggs, potatoes, salt, etc.) as far as I can tell, I just forget to buy something.

Some things off the top of my head would be the more dance-y contemporary side of Synthwave - something like Occams Laser - With You, or maybe more toward the Electronica side of things, like Birdy Nam Nam - Defiant Order. Daft Punk also work as a sort of Euro Disco kinda’ distant cousin, too. At least these are the more upbeat proxies I know.

There’s always Darkwave (The Neon Droid - Braindance), but it’s like going from mild Indie to Nu Metal, so YMMV.

As a side note and potential rabbit hole, the first thing which popped into my head when skimming through that playlist was The Birthday Massacre - Science. I don’t think they fall under Synthwave, but I find they do a wonderful job at incorporating the “synth” part into their unique voice!

Edit: oh and give The Octopus Project a try! The Mythical E.L.C., for instance. Bit different, but very peppy and fun!

For me, it’s the sheer scale of celestial bodies.

Our Sun is humongous. UY Scuti’s radius is 1700 times larger - 185300 times larger than the Earth’s. And then there’s TON 618, which has a mass 66 billion times larger than our Sun’s.

And even those are barely grains of sand when compared to solar and galactic structures… It is humbling, to say the least.

Edit 2: I deleted the previous edit, because my first observation is correct (scale is maintained when going from comparing radii to comparing diameters…), which is why I have an Arts degree.

I only ever had one, and he died of old age! But he sure tried his best to clock out early!

I remember about three months in, I came home from school only to find him suspended from the top of his cage by his right hind leg. Rushed him to the vet, got minor PTSD when the doc tied his stump and told us “the rest of it will fall off soon,” and we threw that cage away the instant we got back home.

After that, Crunchy (rough translation) had the whole apartment to himself, and he sure liked to run right in front of you as you were walking! Would have rather broken my neck than step on the little fella (which I nearly did a couple of times - the neck part, not the stepping on him part).

But he was very loving and cute, he’d climb up either mum or myself while we were watching movies or playing vidya, he’d nestle above the collar bone, and sleep there for hours. Even my cat loved him to bits, they used to sleep together under my bed. He’d help himself to popcorn, chips, fried eggs, cereal (because of course he was allowed on the table, equal rights), and he once bathed in my soup.

This, and all the more nowadays, because anything progressive has been intrinsically linked to a change of the Status Quo. And those trillions of fun bucks in the mattress (as well as their self-importance and self-perceived relevance) must be protected from those pesky Socialists!

Melatonin helps me sort of “enforce” a bed time. Whenever I realise I’m itchin’ for a binge, I pop 5mg of melatonin and I’m dozy within 30-45 minutes. And it’s not the full system shutdown you get with sleeping pills, it just brings about that organic “need to sleep now, will continue tomorrow” feeling.

Also, aging “helps.” I’m in my mid 30s and have noticed that my bed time has become progressively earlier - used to pull 6 hours of sleep (usually 2AM-8AM) without issues in my late 20s, now I feel almost hungover if I don’t get my 8 hours and/or wake up after 8AM, and need to compensate with naps for about a week.

I haven’t needed to wake up earlier than 7AM regularly for over a decade, though, so YMMV with these specifics. But I still do recommend giving melatonin a shot. The only caveat I have for it is that it may mess with your blood sugar levels, so 100% consult a physician beforehand if you have such issues.

Imho, the most important trait a good manager can have is humility - by this I mean they don’t let that management position go to their head and realise that everyone’s in the same pot, they have the capacity to admit when they’re in the weeds in terms of knowledge and are not afraid to ask for clarifications or to let someone else take the wheel in specialty aspects (and not as an excuse to stay ignorant), and that they’re not the most important person in the team, the entire team is.

Besides that, transparency in all things, empathy (we’re all people with people stuff going on in the background), honesty, diplomacy, genuine curiosity, a capacity to see the forest for the trees, the courage to put their foot down when absolutely needed (mostly to defend the team), accountability, doesn’t micromanage but instead encourages their teammates to develop both their skills and confidence in their skills.

As I see it, a management position should exist to help the team, not lead it. People usually know what they’re doing (most of the time even better than the manager), so the manager should ensure that they’re working on providing things which are in lesser supply within the team (eg. can function as a spokesperson, simplifies the processes in order to remove needless time sinks, can ideally act as a quasi-therapist for all things work related, keeps track of the big picture, helps structure the workload in a rational manner, etc.).

Edit: oh, and this is a personal favourite of mine, is not afraid of saying that the ship’s sinking when it is. Again, working for what’s best for their teammates.

Does this apply if I don’t even know what day it is?

Wouldn’t go so far as calling it a work of art, but I remember this one time in 9th or 10th grade when our Plastic Arts (technically a general overview of art history and practical exercises for techniques, practically it was just painting whatever, in various shapes and sizes) teacher had us paint religious iconography on slabs of wood. Saints, to be more specific.

I won’t touch upon how utterly pissed my mother was at having to hunt down an ~A4 sized plank within a week (this was before the prevalence of Hyperstores). The thing just came out looking… wrong… It was supposed to be St. George, I believe, and it came out looking like an emaciated and woefully distraught Gandalf the Grey with a spotlight shining in from behind.

I remember this one being extra-bad because, besides basically having had no real training in painting throughout grade school, the subject matter in itself spoke nothing to me. I wasn’t absolutely horrible, as I used to do a lot of sketching and developed a relatively neat hand by that time, but I was thoroughly within the “exorcise your trauma through drawing biomechanical mutilations” phase of my artistic development, let’s call it.

It was also the first time when being creative felt like a horrid chore.

Edit: there is no evidence of said work, because I threw it away the instant I got home. As an agnostic, I get the feeling both God and St. George would have agreed with me…

Not downvoted, I just remove the default upvote which comes with posts/comments, it irks me.

To add to that, most of us didn’t have a say in things. Boomers were kinda’ the last generation who still had some controls at their disposal, but the system got completely out of our control from Gen X onward. We’re just along for the ride as it’s crumbling.

Edit: I’ve realised this may sound as though I’m pointing the blame at Boomers - I’m really not, I firmly believe the game was rigged from the start, it’s not down to the average citizen. I was just trying to mark a shifting point.

It’s the looming boiling point. More and more people understand things are going to come to a head Sooner Than Predicted™.

What we’re seeing is grief, but multiplied by billions

Tarantula, because I have arachnophobia - why be anything other than what scares me the most?

Well, you can’t really do that when it’s expressed in written form as long as it’s not part of a grander “manifesto” of sorts. Or better put, as long as it’s not grounded in a context.

This can only be solved by slapping as much nuance as you possibly can on everything you write, make it incontrovertible in its clarity.

But if you’re not in the mood for an adjoining essay whenever you want to post a one-liner (seriously not being snarky about this, I completely understand the feeling of utter tedium when having to explain the same damned thing for the twelfth time), you can always monitor the reaction then provide clarification. Once you’ve done that, you really don’t need to engage any further.

And the most important aspect is to never forget that this is the internet. Some people are in it just to stir up shit, and that’s a game you win by not playing.