You sound reasonable, and I don’t have all the information, but maybe I can play devil’s advocate.

Suppose your friend is actually a good dad, and is using his time without his kids around to catch up with his friends, listen to what’s topical in your life, and then do something other than talk about his kids?

This is a non-rhetorical good faith question: should kids be the sole focus of their parent’s lives once they have them?

I agree that kids need to be the top priority once people have them, no question there. But aren’t parents allowed to have lives of their own as well?

I don’t have kids and I’m at the age where most of my friends have them. The folks I knew whose only focus was on their kids gradually phased out of the group. Many of those people ended up divorced unfortunately. The parents I see regularly spend most of their time on their kids, but also have hobbies and interests outside of just kid stuff.

People who have their own lives in addition to being good parents seem to be happier and more well rounded. It also makes connecting with them easier for people without kids. I’m up to date on their kids, go to birthdays, and occasionally babysit. We have kid friendly dinners at each other’s homes, go camping with kids, etc… But we also go out once in awhile without them, catch games, play golf.

I feel like that’s healthier.

I’m not sure that’s the point of the story, but I may be wrong. What I got from it is that the Democratic party has already gerrimanderd basically everywhere they could, leaving few other places to manipulate to counter the Republican effort in Texas (and other states).

I voted, and not for Trump, but I think it’s fair to say that both major parties screw around with districting to enhance their advantage and cement their control over states. It just so happens that the Dems have fewer cards to play in this particularly stupid game.

It’s a mixed bag.

Growing up was made difficult because school is so slow that I’d rather be getting into trouble than sitting in class. By the start of middle school I’d already read the entire high school honors reading list, I had to walk to the high school from my middle school in 7th grade to take math classes. I rarely had regular school work in high school, nearly all of my academic teachers designed a different curriculum for me, which was nice but probably mostly to keep me from acting up in class. I never studied or did a shred of homework, but got good grades.

Social interactions were tough, I’m not much of an empath, not that I don’t experience empathy but emotions just aren’t intuitive, actually they often are the opposite of what you’d expect to be helpful, especially among young people. I had to concentrate to read people’s faces and mannerisms to understand the emotional and social subtexts of most interactions. I self medicated with alcohol a lot in high school.

All of my academic classes in high school were honors, and my final 2 years were all AP, while lettering in 3 varsity sports (4 total, but you can only play 3 each academic year). It wasn’t until my second year in uni that I ran into a class for which I actually had to study (nuclear chemistry), and boy was that an awful surprise. A handful of classes were like this for me, most I just showed up 3 times and got a good grade: the first day of class so I wouldn’t get dropped, the midterm, and the final.

I read quickly, think systematically, and information just sticks in my head. It was very difficult to understand why this wasn’t how most people were. Everything I do I analyze for improvement, and remember to do it better the next time. My wife calls me a skill collector because people seem to think I’m super good at everything, but to me it’s just logical that if you’re going to take time do something you might as well do it as well as possible.

After uni things started getting easier. Being forced to closely analyze social interactions and systematically give the “right” reactions is extremely useful in professional life. I wear this mask in all my interactions with all but my closest friends. It’s a bit psychopathic, but I don’t do it to anyone’s detriment, it’s mostly to get along and fit in.

I’ve self selected for highly intelligent friends, and I’m exhilarated to meet new people who can communicate with the kind of bandwidth that our brains run at, if that makes sense. I’m still close with most of my friends from high school, who have had varying levels of success, but I still have to be guarded when it comes to activities or conversation to make sure I don’t stick out too much.

In general I have a very pessimistic view of people and the world. The average person isn’t very sharp, and half of all people are dumber than that. However many smart people do evil things, most of the time for no reason at all. It’s exhausting to keep up with it all, so I just focus on my path and my family, and do what I can to directly improve my community.

It would be nice to fit in a little easier, but I wouldn’t trade my experience for anything else.

You’re not wrong, but in this specific case he was in ICE custody for less than 12 hours.

I agree this is total fuckery, but at least the dude was released hours later.

Source

Segregated facilities are already illegal, including language about them in contracts is redundant, because contracts which compel illegal behavior are unenforceable.

In no particular order:

• being fit
• physically tired
• no booze or cannabis on nights I actually have to sleep well
• a completely dark room, no little lights on electronic devices, blackout curtains, etc…
• a bed (I won’t mention the brand unless asked) that adjusts to my sleep patterns. It measures my breath rate, heart rate, how often I move, if I’m snoring (rare), etc… It then knows how well I’m sleeping and can soften or firm up, and tilt my upper body up or down. Depending on how my vitals change it learns how best to accommodate my sleep.

If I have trouble due to stress or the neighbors are making noise I’ll throw on an eye mask and ear plugs.

I’m basically comatose 15 minutes after hitting the pillow and wake up before my alarm.

A falling knife machete has no handle.

and I sharpen those every 30 minutes

I’m sorry, what?

If I sharpened my knives after every 30 minutes of use I wouldn’t have any steel left after a couple of months, tops. My knives are shaving sharp, I use them for several hours every day.

If your knives hold an edge and are profiled correctly, sharpening every 30 minutes (even a quick touch up) is entirely unnecessary. Professional meat cutters and fishmongers annihilate cutting for 10 hours a day and require razor sharp tools, and they don’t spend even close to as much time as you’ve claimed touching up their edges.

Don’t get me wrong, I love sharp knives, but either you’re exaggerating or doing it wrong.