Something to think about: a request to take politics off the discussion table is not an infringement on your friend’s rights. What you’re doing is offering a choice: keep talking about other stuff, which will likely make you want to talk with them more frequently, or keep talking about politics, which is draining and makes you less likely to want to talk to them.

There’s definitely other people who they can talk politics to death with if they so choose. You don’t have to accept that yourself if it’s burning you out, unless the other party has literally nothing else to talk about and you want to retain their friendship.

There’s a balance that can be struck here for a better relationship/better shooting the shit experience, but you have to take your own boundaries seriously (said the kettle).

The older I get, the more I understand that old “never discuss politics, religion, or money” adage. Obviously ‘never’ is too far, but in casual discourse too often these just lead to people feeling shittier after the discussion. Save 'em for when there’s a real purpose behind it - supporting change or increasing understanding. Otherwise it’s just bitching, and drains pretty quick.

Tonic water is your friend. Works for both low-alcohol options (bitters, preferably citrus bitters but you can experiment) and boozy ones (G&Ts are obviously a classic, whiskey tonics are pretty nice sometimes, herbal liqueurs work very well, etc.)

Often when I’m out and want another drink, but don’t want to keep drinking, plain tonic water is the preferred choice recently. I got 99 problems, but malaria ain’t one 😎.

Beyond that, you can look into the wild world of drinking shrubs.. Haven’t been arsed to try it yet but I like the concept.

I have a cool 5 Canadian dollars.

I think it comes down to finding the specific activities that allow you actually channel this, which are likely different between folks.

I mostly hear about it in terms of physical exertion (working really hard at the gym, sporting particularly hard, whatever) or artistic expression. Dunno that cleaning your house does it for most people (though it might for some, particularly if you go hard and fast enough that it meets the physical exertion criteria).

Trying to find stuff like that for myself - not because there’s anything wrong with a daily jork, but because a weekly to bi-weekly jork is fucking awesome.

100% possible, making it even more punk af (hand sanitizer was used after taking this photo, though)

Real talk, I love the idea of being part of the Lemmy contingent that ‘crashes’ (see: participates respectfully in) local reddit meetups.

Not a huge board game guy though, which is the most established one in my neck of the woods…

Not weird or stupid!

Friends? Absolutely! People may go back and forth on the value of online-only friendships, but you can definitely make friends if you keep a decent back and forth going, no different than other online spaces. Obviously, be aware of the risks (scammers bots), but there’s lot of folks here who’d probably be down for friendship to at least some degree.

Relationships? This I’m a little less certain about - probability seems very low if you’re hetero, slightly higher but still pretty low if not. But who knows?

Don’t neglect meatspace, though (even if it’s kind of a horror show sometimes).

‘House’/basic no-name wheels are probably fine if they’re just trying it out for now (edit: just pay attention to hardness with an eye to where they’re skating - harder for park, a little softer and/or wider for street. Talk to the guy at your local skateshop). I second Reds or Bronsons for bearings.

The indy fanboy in me says they deserve a good set of Independent trucks, but honestly at this stage of the game the cheapest trucks you can find at the skateshop probably suffice. Pick them up a skate tool while you’re at it.

This is what I was thinking, but I’m digging the lists for both holidays rolling in too.

Excellent choice! Didn’t even consider that one.

sh.it.head, for a lemmy user of a certain vintage, anyway.

Beyond that idk 🤷‍♂️

Frankly, this is the best outcome. Going and winning a decent amount your very first time is a huge risk for developing a gambling problem, because your monkey brain goes “It happened once, so it can totally happen again”. Doubly so when you’re young and your ‘decent amount’ is lower than it might be otherwise.

It could, sure, but the actual probability doesn’t line up with your probabilistic fluke, and that’s a hard thing to overcome for a lot of folks.

Never got to a point where it was a survival threat (very lucky in that regard), but that $300 I won when I was 19 was the most expensive money I’ve ever made.

So they’re slowly rotting (I mean, not rotting but you know what I mean). It’d be wise to back them up digitally if better digital copies are hard to come by.

But a couple additional thoughts:

1. Whenever you actually watch one of them, put it back on the shelf backwards/upside-down. Wait up to six months. Anything on the shelf that isn’t backwards/upside-down gets put in the ‘don’t keep’ pile.

2. If you’re looking for a hobby, don’t want to keep them but don’t want to toss them right away, you could play around with … idk exactly you call it, but video mixing? A couple VCRs, some sketchy looking hobbyist tech from Etsy, and a capture card, and you can play around with multiple analogue video sources and noise introduction to make some cool as fuck visuals. Actually looks hella fun, it’s high on my post-divorce distraction list. Use 'em till they’re dust for this purpose or you get bored. If you want to squeeze more life out of them afterwards, there’s lots of crafts you can do with old VHS bodies and tape.

Caveat: At minimum, if you have old VCR recordings, back that shit up ASAP. Old commercials and TV shows (particularly super local stuff) are of massive interest to a certain type of person, who would appreciate your efforts. This goes double for cam footage/recordings of live events.

Bro, are you ok? Your post history to date is actually really concerning.

To answer your question, no, I don’t think raising the age of consent to your early to mid 20s is a good idea. Is the relationship dynamic in what you describe probably kinda fucked? Yeah. But adults get to make adult decisions, no matter how others may feel about.

Ugh, same. Back when I was married both in spirit and law, there was a nice, well-endowed bartender at my local. I had no designs on anything at all, wanted to just have regular ol’ barfly-bartender platonic chatter. Here was my inner monologue:

Don’t stare at her boobs, don’t stare at her boobs, oh god I’m looking at her boobs, look UP you fucking creep she doesn’t need that shit; ok, maybe just identify all the liquor bottles behind her - THAT’S A FUCKING BOOB KNOCK IT OFF - k, Wisers, Captain Morgan’s, some coffee liqueur - wait, she said something. What did she say? Oh shit, she’s got the customer service scowl on and has covered herself. Congrats, Cracks, you are now officially one of the creepy guys, no better than the alkie dude who asks for hugs. God damn it - go play some pinball and go home.

Stupid lizard brain. Doesn’t happen all the time with every woman (thank fuck, that would be paralyzing), but awkward as fuck for everyone involved when it does.

I have decided that this is dating advice.

In a world where we all have phones, I see no reason we all can’t have sad violin music at the ready for these occasions.

I was sailing the North Atlantic and being black out drunk while ashore.

🎵A sailor’s still a sailor, just like he was before.🎵

Eating mushrooms with the homies in the woods instead of going to prom. Zero regrets, would do it again.