I was originally planning to start the 2nd annual SuperbOwl Owl of the Year event on Election Day, and I’m glad I decided not to do that!

I started it on Saturday instead to give people time to cool off a bit, and one the plus side, I’ve seen a few users I haven’t heard from in a while chime in again, but the initial response has gotten almost 10% downvotes, which I find pretty shocking. It was a big success last year and really raised the sub numbers, and even if you dont care about the “competition” you still get the same pics you would anyway.

A bit disappointed overall due to having dipped about 20 places on the active community list. I feel likes are still trending downward, and comments were feeling lower as well. I’m hoping it’s just election stress taking up everyone’s energy for social media and we’ll bounce back soon. I still try to be a place people can come for a smile, so it’s a bit sad if people aren’t doing that.

Fun free and quick unique thing at the airport to have fun with while you’re already there:

When you are at the airport in Terminal C. There are two places where four walkways cross. I guess the architects thought it would be fun if they created an echo chamber. So if you stop in the dead center and speak it echoes and scares everyone around you. It’s a lot of fun so try it when you are passing through the airport. They are located near C14 and C45. If you don’t know they are there, you will walk right past them.

Open: As long as the airport is open. Location: Intersection near gates C14 and C45

Somewhere between suburban and rural Pennsylvania here. I think it was about 2 hours the time voted for Obama’s second term. Another presidential election was about an hour. Presidental elections have lines outside of work hours because nobody gets off to vote. Non-presidential elections are a few minutes to maybe a half hour tops.

I’m so glad they didn’t get rid of early voting after COVID, but I wish the drop boxes were around for more than a few hours on 2 weekends. I like dropping it off rather than trusting the mail, but they’re only open 8-5 on weekdays and 10-2 on the last 2 weekends.

I’ll share a comment I left on another post a few weeks ago because I think the message is important. It’s my own story of how people can change, and also comments from someone more directly in the eyes of current extremist supporters. I got a few downvotes for being naive or overly sympathetic in some opinions, but I still stand by my opinions.

Will I be skeptical of conservatives after this election? Of course, since I was well before the MAGA era. Will there be some people I never associate with again? Of course, since some really revealed themselves to be bad people. But most really just seem ill informed or unable to relate to things beyond their own spheres of influence. But just as people were mutable to become this way, they can get out of being this way. It’s up to each person though to determine what level of effort they’re willing to put into it though.

If things get worse after the election, I may harden my stance, but I’m still hopeful for now. Most of my loved ones though are liberals and gay people though, and when push comes to shove, they will always win out with me. I won’t condone hateful behavior and people can get lost as long as they’re going to do things to spread that crap, but if they decide to be receptive and compassionate again, they need people that will be there to receive them back to normalcy.

Margaret Killjoy was recently talking on one podcast about mutual aid during the recent hurricanes. She was talking about how her neighbors probably have starkly opposite views as she does as a trans anarchist, but she believed that in a situation like this where it could mean life or death, that they would be able to set differences aside and work together for their mutual benefit.

She also went on to say that she didn’t hate them and wish them any harm, she just wished that they would stop holding on to hateful and hurtful beliefs.

Most of my family and my girlfriend’s families support just about all of this MAGA crap, but I don’t know if I could call a single one of them a bad person. Some of them treat me differently in what I feel are very obvious ways, but I don’t believe any of them would let me suffer on purpose. They all seem to not have problems sympathizing with people or situations they are personally familiar with, but with concepts that they are unfamiliar with, they can find them unimportant, and develop bad takes on those things.

As my family is almost all conservative, I was raised that way, and until my later 20s, I had a lot of the same beliefs. As I met more people, learned more things, and developed opinions of my own, I am now mostly the opposite person I was. I can see how wrong I was about just about everything.

I feel it’s ok to hate the beliefs, and dissociate with people while they hold those beliefs, and especially while they act on those beliefs, which includes giving power to those pushing those values on others. I don’t think we should turn our backs totally to them as people though, if that makes sense. If they were hurt, I would still help them. If they needed something, I would help them to get it. If they want me to meet them somewhere in the middle ideologically, most likely not. But it’s part of my humanity to not leave someone to suffer just because they’ve got some dumbass beliefs.

You have every right to associate or not with whomever you wish. You can believe the opposite of people and think they are wrong for what they believe. But I think most people are inherently good. Some make it much harder to keep that belief, but I don’t think many are lost causes or irredeemable.

If you have depression with a medical cause, the only solution is going to be medicine.

I had depression for about 20 years and ignored it because I thought it would be too expensive and complicated.

One time I mentioned it to my GP at my free annual checkup. He wrote me a script for Lexapro. Even when I didn’t have insurance, it has never cost over $20 for a month supply.

It has been worth countless times that to me, and one of my biggest regrets was not just asking sooner and assuming and taking other people’s word it was complicated and expensive to get help.

As mentioned in another reply, try the teledoc and see if they can give you something. There are a few cheap types these days so you can hopefully get one that works for you.

Best of luck, it is truly life changing!

I’ve been using Trade coffee for the last 2 years or so. The subscription basically amounts to free shipping.

The selection is good, and I get something new every time I order without having to go to multiple websites to see who has what in stock that I’d like.

I don’t think their recommendations are that great, but the filter options make it easy to find something I am interested in.

I had noticed the posts popping up and it was nice to see.

One thing I find about the BIFL forums is that it ends up being a lot of the same things over and over again, because, well, they’re the things that lasted, most likely because they are simple things. Perhaps you could have an item of the week, such as what over the ear headphones have lasted you the longest, what sneaker took more of a beating than you ever thought it could, etc. More things that get used everyday but maybe not BIFL god tier like a cast iron pan, but something you would like to get 5-10 years out of. Speed Queens are great, but most people only buy a washer/dryer every decade or so, so there isn’t much conversation to be had in a small user base like we have here. I saw the sidebar says it doesn;t technically have to be “for life”, just above average durable.

Light timers have been great. I feel having the ones in my bedroom work like a daylight alarm has been very helpful, and as you said, you never come home to a dark house, which is helpful if you’ve got arms full of groceries or such.

Also the smart thermostat in conjunction with smart outlets lets me turn on the room fans and AC when I’m on my way home.

Even having the ability to change color temp is nice so you can have harsh bright white if you need to see something you’re working on, but the majority of the time you can have nice warm or soft light.

Spotify and Pandora have done pretty good for finding me new music. It’s about the only thing that has worked in any useful way.

YouTube isn’t bad, but it feels like it updates the recommendations too fast. If I watch one or two videos of something random that got stuck in my head, I get disproportionate recommendations for the same thing, as opposed to things more consistent with my long term viewing.

Trade (coffee subscription) lists 3 flavor descriptors with every coffee, and I remove so maybe from my recommendations with the same terms, yet I still get them recommended. I end up just searching the new arrivals until something strikes my fancy. They’re tied with Amazon for most useless algo.

There’s just not enough stuff to focus only on subscribed only, and there still seems to be a good number of new communities popping up.

I do have most meme communities filtered out, as it was just too overwhelming for everything else, but that’s about it.

I want to see all the threads I can where I may have something to add to help other communities develop.

I’ll check Subscribed quick at the end of the day to make sure I didn’t miss anything that I really do want to see.

I feel I could have gone to the one I usually do and got what I wanted, but I took it as an opportunity to reach out to the other one, and I don’t think I’ve ever had any interaction with them, or even seen them post or leave a comment.

I know who I’ll be going to in the future… 😜

The Superbowl community has returned to its drama-free state.

The mod I haven’t talked to before pulled my post and the one that caused the initial AI controversy. I messaged them saying if you’re going to institute a rule to let people know by putting it in the sidebar or something, and I suggested they unremove them, as ocassionally use AI either to teach to spot it, or just goofy obvious joke stuff like owls in clothes.

Haven’t heard back all week though, so not very helpful…

I feel likes are down, but I always feel that way. We did spend a couple days in the front page of active communities for .World, so I take it all is still going well.

Been getting some real nice pics and stories recently, and found some new photographers that do good work.

Almost time to start actively planning the Owl of the Year event. I am looking forward to that. It was a ton of fun last year, even though it was a lot of work.

I like the collar and bow! It looks very modern while still having some age of knights and damsels in high towers charm.

The Yuketen stuff looks very impressive! I got a kick out of their “Land Jordan” shoe. 😁

I would have also been confused, but then enjoyed the explanation!

It is a very cool looking shirt though!

Well, they are pretty darn nifty!

I had a linen shirt once, and this super hot summer this year had me wanting to give linen another go. It’d be nice to have at least one for occasions that are a little nicer during the summer.

I saw a couple, but this kind seemed the most common. They are indeed very awesome looking. May have to give the show a listen as well.

Yikes. My brother works a hard large job and is full of aches and pains and I still see him buy mostly crap footwear and it blows my mind.

My girlfriend has never quite understood why I spend more money on shoes and boots than actual clothing, but now she started working 12 hours shifts at the hospital on her feet the majority of the day. Guess who started with one pair of Brooks, but now has 3 pairs of Brooks? 😁

You know, I came into this thinking I didn’t particularly like clothes, but now I think it’s just clothes shopping I don’t enjoy.

I got a Starter windbreaker type jacket around 98-00 and I still wear it every spring and fall. I got a new and upgraded zipper on it a few years back and I just rewaterproofed it last year and it’s still awesome. That is probably the oldest clothing item I have and it’s something I enjoy at least as much, if not more, than when I bought it since it’s been through so much of my life with me.