Thank you for writing my comment for me. Way better than AI. I didn’t even know I wanted to post this until I read it.

I know. Cried myself to sleep over it when I was younger. Seems a bit silly now, but I think a lot of us go through those feelings. I can’t help that, but I can assure you you’ll have a different perspective on it some day. For all the good it does you now.

If it helps, my thirties were much wilder than my youth.

I hear you, mate. When I was thirteen all my friends were having crazy sex while I could barely get a handy. And if you think that’s wild, my parents generation literally did nothing but drugs and sex all day. My older kids didn’t even consider it a party unless someone was getting spanked or tied up, while my teens must content themselves with sexting everyone their nudes—damned Covid.

There has always been hookup culture, and it has never included you (you being about 90% of readers). This generation is unique in neither aspect.

Wait, so you’re part of the generation, your experience is different, and you’re assuming the problem is your looks and not that you’re being lied to?

I’m just going to wait for hell to freeze over before I take their word on things.

No.

Could use a couple of rusted-out cars on the lawn.

I moisturize, though.

Perhaps relevant for some: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2945470/ring-lets-police-ask-for-security-videos-heres-how-to-opt-out.html

I’d use it on occasion if there were a reason to, but I just can’t conceive of any possible benefit to this. Like, OAI, pretend you want me to buy in and tell me what the use case is.

WAIT!

And it can’t be a personalized experience that shows me only the things I’m most likely to want to buy (or the things most likely to convince me I want to buy something).

NOT YET!

And it can’t be to make sure I never have to experience something on the internet that challenge any of the assumptions that keep me comfortable and happy.

Okay. Now you can go.

crickets

I did that for like a year, but eventually I lost my ability to use it even through a browser. Not sure why your experience was different. Maybe Android vs. iOS? Anyway, I’ve been off it so long now it doesn’t matter. No one uses it to reach me.

You’re absolutely right about the connotations here. “Plot hatched to thwart” is exactly what you’d say about a nefarious conspiracy.

In fact, plot hatched to thwart democracy is about how I’d sum up this administration.

I just flat out quit messenger when they made it app-only. I’m not installing that shit in my phone or my computer. Facebook on my phone is just the web app.

Best part is no little red digits telling me I’m missing out on something (spam and shit I don’t care about 95% of the time). I check it when I think to. That’s once every few months which is about how often I’m interested in updates from people who aren’t in my life any more.

I’d like to replace all of my apps with bookmarks eventually. No one needs that kind of data on me.

Any other year that long ago would probably be full of difficult to remember details, but I spent most of that year in military training. Left on the evening on my 18th birthday. Guess you could say I was involuntarily into health and physical fitness. Fashion, not so much.

Then I came back home and started a 2 year degree in electronics. I’d say that was a poor choice, vocationally, but I don’t really have any regrets about the path my life has taken. I never really have known who I wanted to be when I grew up. As I approach retirement, I hope to get it figured out by then.

It’s got some amazing moments, but a lot of them aren’t related to the plot, and they’d get cut. What’s left would leave people wondering why they bothered watching.

You could probably cut a pretty watchable white-man version of How Stella Got Her Groove Back with all the best bits. I wouldn’t call my life a romance, but most of the best bits have been romance-adjacent.

Going out on a limb here and guessing the guy is white and his family is well off. I’d go check but… we all know I don’t need to.

You’re right. I had some fundamental misunderstandings of the system. My apologies. I’ll go rethink things. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.

I thought they elected a party and the party chooses who leads it? Have to be honest I don’t follow foreign politics as well as I should. But the same thing applies at a local level. I want to vote for individual representatives and senators. At whatever level I don’t want a bunch of out of touch rich folks deciding who best represents my individual interests.

I really dislike voting for parties rather than individuals. I realize parties are inevitable, but I hate them. I want to elect an individual who I trust to fight hard for the things I want and to have the wisdom to make compromises—even painful ones—to achieve a greater good.

Like with Obama, I trust that he had to make some difficult choices and did the best he could, even when I vehemently disagreed with some of them. Literally the only President in my lifetime I feel that way about, and the party would never have made him President. Or PM, I suppose it would be.

I’m not saying the benefits of parliamentary systems wouldn’t outweigh the harms, but they definitely aren’t perfect.

Sounds like a great investment opportunity.