“It’s time to get her OUT and hire a new guy for the job!”

Even republicans would find this obvious, if they could read.

All of us adults are vaccinated for RSV, TDAP, flu, and Covid, but the idea of a maternal vaccine is incredible. My son got RSV as an infant and he has had related health issues his whole life. He was extremely sick off and on for most of his childhood like it just trashed his lung health. He had asthma, too.

Her due date is late June, so well before that August window starts, but I’d love for them to give it anyway based on how susceptible to long term health effects her brother was.

Very timely as my daughter is pregnant right now. I appreciate you sharing.

I’m just a hair younger than you. I’ve never for a moment entertained communism. I’ve always been a believer in capitalism, but with the regulations and constraints we had in maybe the 70’s (not going to imply there was a golden age of capitalism, but if there was it was before god damned Reagan). And if we can’t regulate capitalism, I’m all for strangling it. Fuck everything about this dystopian bullshit. No one gives one single shit what happens beyond the next quarter. No one is in business to build things or solve problems—they are here to make fucking money.

Fuck. Unfettered. Capitalism.

That’s one of those things where I’m happiest just not seeing or being part of that conversation. Those are unserious people and it’s pointless to pretend you can have a serious conversation about those things. And even if you could, what is the value to me to wade into the nuance of when it’s okay to find someone attractive when frankly it wouldn’t matter—if they didn’t act like aggressive horny assholes to anyone. I have 13 and 15 year old daughters. I don’t really care who finds them attractive, but I do care who disrespects them, and that’s not going to change when they turn 18, so again that conversation doesn’t need my presence at all.

I’ll agree that Bluesky is minimally toxic, but I also haven’t gotten a whiff of those kinds of conversations here on Lemmy, either. The most contentious ones were in the run-up to the elections and that’s just a tense time for everyone. And it’s hard to let opinions we vehemently disagree with run rampant when the consequences for getting shit wrong are… well… gestures at everything.

I don’t mind driving as long as I’m not sitting in traffic. Which is why I’m in the Midwest making far less money than I could on either coast. My commute times were just as long near DC with a third of the miles traveled. There was the commuter train but that was just a different kind of stress.

Some people deliberately come to social media for fighting. I probably used to. Maybe on occasion when I’m feeling cranky I will be less diplomatic than I really want to be.

But I find two things actually help:

1. I’m not friends/following anyone I know in real life. That helps with anonymity in case I do run afoul of someone who bears a grudge, but also when someone posts aggravating bullshit, it’s not someone I care about. Which leads to…
2. I’m merciless about blocking anyone and anything that I can’t engage with fruitfully. Attention is a limited resource and I don’t want to spend it all on negativity. I’m happy to hold genial conversations with folks I disagree with, but if interacting with them becomes tedious, stressful, or annoying I just bin them. Hell, if someone is a big enough prick to someone else I block them. If someone is in every thread harping on some agenda, gone.

Bluesky has a feature to mute keywords for a set period. If I need a break from news about Gaza, Trump, some trending drama, sports (like the World Cup), or just want to avoid spoilers, I mute the topic for a while.

Together, these tools make social media much less negative for me. It usually keeps me from doom scrolling or taking the rage bait.

And when I’m emotionally charged or unclear, I sometimes draft my comments elsewhere before posting. I let it sit for a bit, and if I can’t say what I mean with the tone and clarity I want, I just don’t post. Maybe 30% of my comments get binned—some after spending an hour or more working on them.

In short, I heavily curate my social interactions—both incoming and outgoing—to reduce stress and negativity. As a result, social media today is far more pleasant than it was ten years ago.

I was transitioning from being a lotus notes developer to a java developer and I was moving back home to the Midwest from DC. As that job took a chance on me and allowed both, it was a really good fucking job for the moment. It eventually transitioned to hybrid.

We had planned to move to the area but couldn’t find a place we liked and kept living with my folks until I just said fuck it and we bought a house near them instead and I dealt with the commute. Then Covid hit and I got laid off on my two year anniversary.

Now, my commute is about 70 miles one way 1-2 times per week (and that’s still 3 hours total drive time). That’s a pretty typical drive for me. My kids also live kinda near where I work so even if it weren’t for commuting, I’d still make that drive quite often. As it is, I drive down the night before an office day, spend time with them and stay over night, and then drive back home about 2pm the next day (fucking hate rush hour in Detroit). But I can’t charge at their houses anyway so that doesn’t help.

I drive a PHEV because there isn’t an EV out yet that can get me there and back. Though I finally have a plug at work if I get in early enough.

I was seriously considering it back then. My wife hated the look and wouldn’t let me even consider it, but as someone who likes Back to the Future and Tron, I didn’t hate the aesthetic, though it took some getting used to. And I want a comfortably large EV (my compact is too small for my old bones) with 500 miles to avoid range anxiety. A 100 mile distance in the middle of a midwestern winter without a charger at the other end is going to require 500 miles of range to get back home due to heating the battery and cabin, and driving at 80mph. And my longest daily commute was 212 miles round trip before someone asks how often I need to drive 100 miles away in the middle of winter.

I wouldn’t say bullet dodged because I was never really close to getting one, but charging three times the price for only 60% range compared to that announcement is fucking insane.

Sounds like something the media might help with? They hate a spotlight on their shit.

I’m in my fifties so I have no illusions about my combat effectiveness, but I took that same oath and I would obey it in the same way for the same reasons. Plus I’m like 75 miles from the border. If the lines moved just a little afterward, I could wind up Canadian anyway.

In fifty years we’re going to find a link to microplastics or something. Or maybe not if we don’t do science any more.

Sometimes I think for a half a million bucks I could do some awful shit. But I don’t think I could do that.

They are getting better though.

'E’s not John Cleese! 'E’s a very naughty boy.

If this garbage doesn’t prove I’m not AI, I don’t know what will.

Two would-be assassins tried to circumvent due process. Due process benefits all without regard for politics. Or it should.

(It was totally kinky.)

I can’t find the actual photo so here’s a shitty screenshot of the config…

Man… failed to load media… that’s a really shitty screenshot.

Alright I went out and found it.

Sure but it doesn’t matter if it was bdsm clubs, gay bars, Freemasons, book clubs, worship, or 4H, I should be able to have an expectation of privacy in my associations.