Go for it. I was very reluctant to try DIY haircuts. But once I did…I immediately wondered why I paid for it with time, money, and hassles for all those years.

Individual level:

https://www.npr.org/2017/08/20/544861933/how-one-man-convinced-200-ku-klux-klan-members-to-give-up-their-robes

Societal level: I have no idea, but I imagine media (movies, tv shows, the news, Tik Tok, etc) all have some influence there. Mostly in bad ways, unfortunately.

I have not tested these. They…might work?

https://www.orvis.com/product/field-notes-waterproof-notebook-3-pack/3NAE4200.html

https://northernwoodsmen.com/rite-in-the-rain-all-weather-pen/?sku=RR-OR97

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarsier

Ree-luh-tur instead of reel-tur.

I understand the appeal, even though it doesn’t appeal to me. As a business it’s pure marketing genius. That dude took it from a shunned nothing to the entertainment money printing apparatus that it is now. Which makes me even less interested. I don’t hate popular things for being popular. But that tier of money printing makes everyone at or near the top an evil asshole.

I’m one of the oldest people in the multiple tabletop gaming groups I play with. There are a lot of missed references in both directions. There’s a wide diversity of taste in music, movies, books, streaming shows, etc. We just laugh it off, or ask to be caught up when we don’t get it. Helps a lot that we all like each other, and have the games in common.

So it is possible to move past it. But it can make it more challenging to click in the beginning.

The way some people pronounce jewelry and realtor makes me wince. I never say anything, but I feel a secret burning rage for people who add a non-existant syllable to the middle of those words. (Which is, unfortunately, most people where I live).

Stickers like that don’t bother me much, as people often get them for free and naturally sometimes feel an urge to stick them on something.

What blows my mind are the douchebags who pay a premium to buy some t-shirt or cap that’s essentially a walking billboard for fashion brands.

Anything that requires a good sense of direction / orienting / navigating. I have always been terrible at that kind of stuff. GPS was a huge life changer for me.

You have good intentions, so that’s a good starting point. I think the trick is to not overthink it to much. You don’t have to overtly prove that you are safe and supportive. And as you already realized, you don’t need to call attention to the person being trans.

I play tabletop games at a local gaming store at least once a week and there are often a half dozen or more trans people there playing games. My friends and I just talk to them the same way we would talk to anybody else in the store. That doesn’t mean we’re all exactly the same. Some of us are bubbly and extroverted, some of us are more reserved and introverted. But the key thing is: we don’t change to some other “mode” of interaction when the person we’re talking to is trans.

So if you normally casually compliment people on their fashion choices, etc, and you can do it in a nonthreatening socially smooth way, sure, I think that’s fine. But if you are being “extra” just because the person is trans, and doing some kind of role play you normally wouldn’t…don’t do it.

I hope that helps.

“I get my socializing exclusively at work. I actually enjoy meetings that could have been an email.”

MS with that “hello, fellow kids” energy.

To revisit events in my past while retaining all knowledge. I wouldn’t want to alter the main timeline, but there are so many things I’d like to experience again and experiment with doing things differently. And some deep regrets I’d like a conplete do-over on. Maybe even live some “branches of alternate lives” for years if I wanted.

Great choice. Big Band in general would be nice, too.

Don’t use your connected devices for 24 hours day.

Maybe if it was out for 3 or 4 hours each day. I think I’d like that.

And if you confess suicidal ideation in the US, the authorities rush in to “help” you by taking away your agency and giving you even more crippling debt.

I wince whenever people trip over their keyboards to post those “helpful” 800 hotline numbers. Most of them have good intentions, but the end result is never about really helping the person. It’s about liability coverage and enabling the system to extract maximum value.

“Hi there! It looks like you’re trying to summon Jeebus!” --Fundy Clippy

The meme I keep seeing in regards to nVidia and the LLMs Ouroboros structure is: Company A pays Company B $100 to dig a hole. Company B pays Company A $100 to fill it back up. Both report $100 of “revenue”.