Refusing to use nail polish remover to clean off permanent marker because that's "for women". It's acetone, my dude, acetone.

Your thinking wasn't wrong, the problem was that the municipal and provincial police and governments abdicated their duties and abandoned their citizens. The federal government stepped in because the lower levels of government refused to do their duty for weeks. I don't disagree that Trudeau stepped a foot beyond his jurisdiction, but in that scenario, he was being the only responsible adult who actively cared about the well-being of Canadians.

I'm glad it was done, and there was nothing in the execution that was heavy-handed or otherwise untoward. The people had more than ample warning to disperse, the line moved slowly (giving the people every opportunity to leave of their own volition), force was restrained and minimal. People got arrested because at that point they made the choice to be. It certainly was not the situation we currently see unfolding in the US right now (which, if we are honest, the convoyers would have wanted for their side to perpetuate, if they could).

This is utterly ridiculous and such a thinly veiled racism. It's disgusting that a school principal and members of the school board collectively want to punish this kid so badly for being black they'd go to court to do it.

If there's a go fund me or other fundraiser for court costs for this kid and his family, I'd gladly throw money at it.

To summarize a long story, I (a millennial) put in a task request to a Gen Xer, including step by step instructions. I knew what to do, I just don't have access to do it.

Xer told me that was the wrong service, it's this other one, he can't find the settings in the Other Service. We went back and forth a few times, he repeated I was wrong, until finally he showed me a screen capture from Other Service that showed "managed by service 1" that proved I was right in the first place.

If he were willingly to accept I might know what I'm talking about and looked at the instructions, it would have been done in minutes instead of dragging it out over 11 days.

Obviously this is a hand picked anecdote, but yeah, bosses and non- boss elders definitely get in the way of productivity.

All assignments are submitted electronically now, and if he's in philosophy, he will also have to follow formatting requirements like font, font size, margins, and spacing. Practically, he's doing as much as he is allowed off-computer.

Well, that's silly, all Signal chats are secret; it's not like group chats are public.

"The group's chat description identifies itself as a 'clandestine' group and new members are warned to 'remember the first rule of Fight Club.'"

... Well, then.

Perhaps someone can help me understand the difference between an anthropromorphic animal mascot (which as a tale as old as time) and a furry? When does one cease to be one and becomes another?

There are animal mascots all the time in sports. Why is that not weird, but it's weird to have a sporty animal mascot for coins?

There were Jews for Hitler. These people really think they're "one of the good ones". They're just useful labour until the labour part is done, then they'll get tossed in with the rest of the Jews/Hispanics.

I don't hate Google, I am deeply suspicious of Google.

Netflix literally will not take my money anymore. I had cancelled my subscription during covid because money was tight, but I was willing to temporarily re-subscribe when the next season of select shows came out. I tried to re-enable my original account, but I couldn't because they wouldn't accept my credit card. I tried different cards, then tried to make new accounts with different emails and different credit cards, but still couldn't. Netflix kept rejecting all my cards. I ran out of credit cards.

Look, I was willing to give Netflix my money, it's not my fault they were unwilling to take it.

I watched all of Discovery. It is, by far, the worst of all Star Treks. (Disclosure: I have not seen TAS.)

The reason is simple: Discovery is really the Michael Burnham show. She is the Mariest Sue who ever Mary Sued. Discovery could have been a really great show if it had been an ensemble show because it has a lot of very interesting characters whom we never explore.

Instead, everything centres around Burnham. She is the reason for the war at the start of the show. She is the magical, fated solution. She is Spock's (adopted) sister and had immeasurable impact on his life. Even through timey-wimey things, her (biological) mother comes to save her and the universe.

And on top of all that is the crying. Oh, gosh, everything is so emotional on this show. There is a time and place for emotions, but Discovery was too much of it, including inappropriate times. Burnham and her maybe-broken-up-boyfriend stop in the middle of an infiltration in a hostile station to talk about their relationship.

Even the really great characters, Saru and (Emperor Georgiou) centre around Burnham. She is like a sister to Saru, she saved his life, he gives up being a Captain to continue serving under her captaincy. Burnham is Georgiou's daughter (not actually), and Georgiou's love for her (as much as she can love) changes her.

No one has a story unless its actually about Burnham. Or they get a story and then get killed off.

The best thing about Discovery is it brought Trek back on TV and it gave us the rest of this era of shows.

The messages got from it are:

"the patriarchy" is not a good thing, but even the idealized "the matriarchy" has problems too, and whatever we have going on right now isn't really working

a man's value is inherent to himself, it doesn't come from a job or a relationship. (I suppose this applies to women too, but it was Ken who had to learn this lesson).

Men need to support each other more rather than compete with each other

Societal expectations for women are impossible to attain

Get this: my friend is "not allowed" to be left alone with his daughter. His own daughter. If wife needs to go out without baby, baby gets dropped off at grandparents (wife's parents) instead of just staying home with dad. What's even more ridiculous is his profession is early childhood educator. He's more qualified than most other parents out there, male or female. I don't know how he puts up with being insulted like that.

Yeah, I was 22 years old when my mother sat me down for "the talk", and even then, it only consisted of "don't go to bed with someone". LITERALLY nothing more than that. I just looked at her cockeyed and told her she was pretty late for this talk. And of course the talk itself was just so sub par.

From what you've described, it sounds like she's a straight forward and direct person, which is good. Just be straight forward and direct (but tactful) with her. Something like, "I'm sorry, I think I misunderstood the situation. I'd like to hang out as friends, but I'm not looking for anything more." Optionally, "We can have that drink if it's just as friends, but I'm not going to lead you on if you want something more."

BBC series Merlin was a little like this. King Uther hated magic, Prince Arthur was kinda against it because he was told it was dangerous, but didn't exactly hate it himself. Meanwhile Merlin took a job as a servant, doing magic-y things to protect him. Wasn't a great series (writing), but it had enjoyable aspects.

I had to tell a bunch of librarians that LLMs are literally language models made to mimic language patterns, and are not made to be factually correct. They understood it when I put it that way, but librarians are supposed to be "information professionals". If they, as a slightly better trained subset of the general public, don't know that, the general public has no hope of knowing that.

As a childless adult, it's my duty to be part of other people's lives and support families by being a trusted adult (trusted by parents and kids) and be a good role model for others' kids.

Why? Because we live in a society. Today's kids are tomorrow's adults. There are, unfortunately, a lot of terrible social influences out there, and parents can't battle society alone. Young boys and girls need to learn and develop healthy relationships with men and women alike, beyond just their parents, in order to have something to model themselves after and to learn how to treat others with love and respect.

And this is especially so for singletons. A lot of the bad and warped ideas about "relationships" and even self-esteem comes from unhealthy views of romantic relationships. Ideas like if you're not good enough if you don't have a boyfriend/girlfriend. Or ideas that men and women cannot "only" be friends (objectification of other sex). Ideas that men are owed relationships and sex by women (incels). Ideas that it's better to be with a bad partner than to be single (abuse).

Parents can't fight all of that on their own.

I was sad because my friend was dying in the hospital. My manager noticed my demeanour and asked what's wrong. She asked me if I needed to be there, but I said there's nothing to be done.

Later that day I got a phone call from another friend saying it was the end. I put on my jacket and went to my manager's office. I didn't want to, but I started crying. She hugged me, got her jacket, and drove me to the hospital herself. (I didn't have a car then, I'd planned to take the bus.)

My friend died, and that was the saddest time ever in my life. But I'll always remember and appreciate the kindness my manager showed me.

Looks like it's time for sign language to rise. Are the Taliban going to say that women can't move their hands? (How will they serve their masters men otherwise?)