I got my partner into Red Dead Redemption 2!! So, I enjoyed watching them play for several hours- always a blast- love that game. Want to get a PC copy for mods!

Feeling pretty down. Changed my job and am doing more freelance type stuff. Not picking up enough work by a long shot, and being home all day long with my partner is really showing me some of the problems we have. I’m feeling anhedonic and apathetic- some of these relationship issues have been going on for over a year and all of my bids to talk about them have been rejected. Not fun. I’ve started taking better care of myself (Jan. has been difficult) and am doing well, but for the first time in 3 years, I feel like I do not want to engage with them, interact with them, I just want to avoid them. I’ve never wanted to GO TO work more in my life, had no idea how much being out of the house 4-5 days a week was helping me cope with my partner’s avoidance of important topics. I’m gonna try and touch a lot of grass today, so thanks for letting me vent and please dont take it personally if I don’t respond. Thanks again, comrades!

Comrade, I’m so sorry you had this horrible experience! As you’ve already mentioned, decision to drop them completely vindicated! Happy to hear you were able to connect again with a therapist that felt supportive. Ugh, again, sorry you had such an unpleasant experience with this clown.

Not my intention to be unhelpful. But please be very careful- basically any and all ‘health and wellness’ apps, mercilessly harvest and sell your personal medical data. I found this period tracking spreadsheet template in 30 seconds- something like that might be free and helpful while protecting your medical history. Best of luck!

Do you have a take on the AMD Ryzen AI PRO processors vs whatever they were using before? Looks like all their 2025 models have them Not true, I just got stuck on a certain model

Thank you for mentioning this!

Yeah, I really appreciate how you said that cause on reflection I guess I don’t actually want a gaming laptop- I think I just wanted to imagine having one. dedicated AMD graphics card sounds like a great idea, I am swamped right now- but hoping to start learning linux in Jan, so it would be great to be able to move a laptop over to Linux next year, thanks for the input!

thank you! I like the look of these T series, a lot! Seems like most of them could go to Linux pretty easy(gonna try and start learning in jan!) any take on this AMD ryzen ai processor? I’m especially concerned about AI stuff, because work stuff has to be HIPPA compliant and if I cant manage the ai correctly, thats a felony- so i’m mostly just trying to totally avoid out of abundance of caution

Oh wow, I haven’t seen this since I was a kid! Does Northern Exposure hold up? Worth another watch?

Just want to say so much solidarity and support I have for you as a fellow human being, such a relatable moment and still always such a big one. Already lots of great advise, so i’ll just piggy back on- What happened with my current partner and me(we were friends for 9-12 months at this point): one on one hang “Hey…I’m nervous to bring this up but its been on my mind recently…sometimes I think I have feelings for you that are beyond friendship. I don’t want to lose our friendship or make you uncomfortable and I still thought it was important that I bring that up with you.”

Fun fact- one of the single largest thing a person can do to calm their nervous system is to move slowly. Slow, intentional movements communicate to your brain that you are safe it can remain calm. When we move quickly, we are communicating urgency to our brain, which brain takes as- stay alert, something dangerous could be developing. Experimenting with your pace; and breathing patterns may be helpful also. I like the idea that if we want to change our internal state, we have to “seduce” ourselves into it. eg. I cannot go for a run at 10pm get home, jump into bed and command myself to ‘Sleep!’ and expect that to work. But I can ‘set the mood’, ‘curate a vibe’, whatever, I can put on soothing music or nature sounds, light candles, slow my breath, think about gratitudes, etc- all of these things are almost a form a self seduction. Hope something in there is helpful!

someone’s gotta be up at night, tho! Lots of theories around generational sleep patterns and teen-elderly sleep schedules leave very little time where someone isn’t just normally awake- teens naturally stay up late and prefer to sleep late, old folks naturally wake up early and sleep early.

Fun fact: Barter only seems to occur in human societies when a. markets were previously established b. those markets collapse. Check out David Graber’s ‘Debt: first 5000 yrs’ for more info. Most societies are debt based- as in people just do things for each other but keep basic accounts in there heads. Eg. You paid for dinner out last month, i’ll pay this month(doesn’t really matter how much was spent, the exactness isn’t very important) Or, my grandma makes the coolest knit socks, I’m gonna ask her to make some for me and then shes gonna have me do some yard work when i visit later.

This situation…bigoted bat shit crazy. What a mind boggling, wild way to respond to being helped! I am so sorry you had that experience. And, thank you for stopping and taking time out of your day to help a complete stranger- full on Comrade behavior right there! I just wanna offer the idea to try and forget for one moment about how that experience ended and instead focus on how awesome your behavior was!

fun clip, thanks for sharing!

Really cool post, thanks for sharing!

Seems like there are a lot of takes on here already, so I’ll try to just add on. Main Considerations- space(LxWxH, distance from your house); local predators(what kind of protection do they need esp. at night); climate/weather(temps, precipitation); budget(enclosure + feed).

Ducks are happy and cute little monsters, and people generally like them as companions more than chickens. People generally don’t like ducks cause they/their habitat can smell. Ducks love water(will touch on more) and they poop a lot, this make for a smelly habitat if not kept clean or kept in the right conditions. They need to have access to drinking water at all times but esp. with meals(important for their digestion and health). Ducks are both individuals and members of a community so they’ll need a flock, keeping less than 3 birds seems cruel to me for their social health and always keep extra birds(minimal extra resources to provide for them, better for their collective health and enrichment, expect predation). If raising from hatchling expect a 10-15% mortality rate before adulthood, after adulthood it’ll be because something gets into their coop at night and this will happen no matter how hard you work to prevent it. Ducks also need daily access to baths with clean water- a kiddy pool can work fine for this. People generally only get female ducks and chickens, esp. in urban/suburban environments, those birds produce eggs, and are better behaved and generally make less noise) Hope that help, open to slowly responding to questions!

This really bothers me. Part of my job is getting to know people quickly, asking questions, ‘evaluating’, ‘assessing’, etc. And, not only are these questions brimming with subjectivity and bias regarding essentially all ‘demographic’ factors (age, race, sex, income, neurological, cultural, etc) BUT these questions offer me almost NO information about a person whatsoever. So dumb!

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Hey Comrade, I can offer some ideas as someone who is a therapist(LAC working toward LPC). also feel free to dm, i have a hard time responding to posts or dms timely- no hexbear at work is general rule.

So, I dont know too much about art therapy, but have several music therapist friends, and they’re wages are all higher than mine and they enjoy their work immensely. They do a lot of work with neurodivergent and child/adolescent clients. -Undergrad degree doesnt make too much of a difference, in a lot of ways it seems to be a hoop they want you to jump through just to prove you can. I got my BA in religious studies(focused on Tibetan Buddhism) not much of a link between that and my CMHC program(clinical mental health counseling). I did work in the field for my 20’s before going back to school tho- so that made my application look great i’m sure. Only folks in my program with psych undergrad degrees were fresh out of undergrad, almost everyone else had a less direct journey. Trying to go straight from undergrad into a grad program is doable, but presents with some career issues if going the therapist route- you’ll often find middle aged(or even just a few yrs older) cl’s struggle taking people much younger than them as experts. A simple ‘that isn’t an issue for the majority of my clients, how about we try several sessions and if it is still an issue I will help you find referrals for another clinician’ often does the trick, but not all the time. I would highly recommend volunteering or working in some fashion in both fields- it can be really hard to gauge a profession while just sitting on the sidelines, a few weeks of work will be a better guide than just about anything.

Friends who are librarians love the work, complain bitterly about the student debt vs wages; often find it depressing that they are the only social services available, and often feel un/under prepared(sometimes un-safe) for what the job actually entails as far as working with the public, often folks with addiction, mental health concerns, etc. And, to my understanding they do make lower wages than therapists.

both seems like excellent careers and ways to help our brother, sisters and others. Whatever you end up doing, one of these or mystery third option, looking for ways to engage that are creative and outside of the box are sorely needed. Hope something in there is helpful!