They probably couldn’t be happier, with a deep sigh of relief, seeing as how most of the others would look.

Indeed, I would be extremely skeptical of myself if I ever felt 100% about anything, let alone a decision as big as this. That alone would make me force myself to ask for second opinions from as many different people as possible.

I get the sentiment, and of course one needs to be fairly sure about a thing like this, but nobody should ever feel 100% about anything. Only way that happens is if you either willingly ignore or are ignorant of a lot of things on the other sides of the metaphorical coins. Everything in life is a chaotic mess with so many layers and dimensions that it’d be impossible to navigate it with any certainty nearing 100%.

But the sentiment I do agree with. You have to be sure to a great extent, even if it ought not, or ever really even can, be 100%. It’s an impossible threshold for anyone to clear, and telling someone they have to be 100% when they never really can, or at least should be able to, is just planting a seed of doubt in their mind that is not necessarily helpful. It can be very destructive.

In general, having impossible ideals for people to aspire to is a bad exercise. We know this by heart with body ideals and acceptance for example, we ought to understand this applies to everything else too.

Yeah, I would argue that expanding one’s perspective on matters as important as a decision like this, should almost be mandatory.

Asking for fresh eyes and different points of view on any bigger decision is to be encouraged in my opinion. Making big decisions based on intuition and one’s own limited perspective and feelings is bound to be less well informed and as such, more likely to backfire or turn out bad.

Ask questions. Ask opinions. There will always be people telling you to be your own self and not just follow what others say, but broadening perspectives is not following others or lacking own agency/will, it’s the very opposite. It is what helps one have a healthy starting point to make their own decisions.

I’m not sure why some people just feel the urge to assume anyone asking for second opinions or just thoughts on a matter in general is doing it because they lack their own opinion or free will, but here in the internet, they are depressingly many.

People are complex. Life is chaotic. Everything is riddled with unique situational details and it’s impossible for anyone to navigate that alone. It’s only natural to want a better understanding and perspective on any important issues. It’s to be wholeheartedly encouraged. Not reduced to a stereotype of a puppet with no own free will or agency. That’s just a sad, self-important and vain need for some people to appear somehow more independent and intelligent than the rest of us. Don’t pay no mind to them. Thirst for the knowledge and understanding and the expansion of your perspective.

I’ve used a single Sigg traveler bottle for ages, but I’ve had mold buildup on the cap seal. Luckily Sigg has the caps sold as spare parts, so I’ve only had to replace the cap a couple of times during all this time. But it’s been near 15 years I think now, lining intact and all. It’s got a bunch of dents from falling on hikes, sometimes down from pretty high cliffs, but I feel it only adds to its attitude sort of.

Not sure if I’d go for a Sigg today, I have stainless steel in my sights if this one ever proves ready for retirement, but Id definitely choose one that has either replaceable seals and seals sold as spare parts, or at least sells new caps as spare parts. And I’d for sure go with something similarly robust that can handle drops and getting banged around.

The cap design on the Sigg is pretty unbeatable though. It’s so natural for a finger when opening or closing and keeping the cap while drinking, but it also fits all sizes of carabiners or similar, so it’s just so handy to keep around on house but especially on hikes. I’m spoiled thanks to that, so I think there’s a high standard for whatever I’d choose next.

But I can really recommend the aluminum Sigg traveler. Today it has a lot more actually enticing competition, but it’s a classic choice at least around here in Northern Europe.

Edit: Worth noting; Siggs prior to 2008 had BPA in the lining. Mine has a yellow tint in the lining, which is the telltale sign of the BPA-free, safe one. Today, only the aluminium bottles are manufactured in Switzerland, the others are in China (which I think has been thanks to some brand-leeching Chinese acquisition at some point)

Edit2: I also have a lot of old military surplus water bottles from around Europe (similar form factor) simply because both my few-days-bag and longer hiking rig have MOLLE all over the surface, and the old ALICE (us standard from I think around 1970) and MOLLE (or similar, today almost everything in terms of military surplus has something that fits into it) pouches for the water bottles of that certain shape can be had for extremely cheap, and they are so robust in keeping them in place thanks both to the bottle shape and the MOLLE in general, and it’s so flexible.

I mostly use these to carry extra water as plan B but especially for boiling for food or coffee etc. all of them have a certain funky smell that never disappears, but I’ve tested them all by keeping plain water in them for a week or more, then pouring out and seeing how it looks to naked eye, and how it tastes. The smell on some of them can get into the water a little bit, but all taste normal and so far I’ve not got any problems from using them. I would assume the military of all institutions would take care to make these things valid for long term and active use, since, you know, water is pretty much the main driving force in ensuring troops can keep going. But because of the smell I tend not to go for them as the main bottle, ever.

Even if it still feels a bit wrong, I can somehow reason with there being wealthy people and the motivation of potential lavish life, since some seem to really need it to make any effort in society. It’s somewhat understandable at least. Talking about tens of millions, with a bit of stretch hundreds - okay, I can stomach it even if it still seems extremely excess.

But billions… that’s already ten times more than that. How anyone can stomach that, I don’t get.

While my heart disagrees, my brain can get, with some effort, behind what this guy says. It kind of makes sense at least. Retaining your humanity and giving up such an inconceivable amount of money for that, really sounds pretty good in this world we’ve been living in lately. Sounds fucking weird to feel good about someone still having such excess in comparison to all the people struggling with next to nothing, but at least there’s some amount of backbone and clear thought involved.

Not sure what to think still. Like someone else commented, better reserve outright okaying this until we know how the money was given away.

But if it turns out to be sensible and humane, I can honestly say I’m fine with the kind of millionaire this one is. It’s not ideal, but it’s tolerable and in some niche sense, justifiable. If it’s all good, I even wish all the millionaires were like this… if we have to have them, as a compromise with the part of people who need all that, the “dream” to strive for, for whatever reason, at least let them be sensible and moral in some way, such as this…

On a relevant note, I hate the far-right assuming ownership of certain concepts and “themes” for a lack of a better word. Like the futhark, but just cool Scandinavian stuff in general. I’m a bit of a history buff especially for the roundabout period of the North-European Iron age, and I’d love to do manual handwork tattoos using the alphabets used back then, along with some of the symbols in both the Norse as well as Finnic tradition and mythology, but fuck if everyone wouldn’t assume me a nazi straight away if I did do that.

I have an unreasonable amount of disappointment about this in my heart. I could just go and do what I want, then explain them to those important to me, but I am almost the polar opposite of a far-right shithead, on top of which I’m also a neurodivergent demisexual enby, so there’s an absolute zero amount of me wanting to be even slightly associated with those wanting to deny my existence even to total strangers on rare occasions. No way.

But it’s like I can’t present myself as openly as I’d like because of that, and it kind of breaks my heart, even still, when I’m closing being middle aged…

Yeah, and somehow it just gets worse once you’re just scheduling a full calendar of scrims a week in advance and treat it like work that way. The pugs were at least entertaining in some way, but the rest of it was only ever going to be satisfying if it lead somewhere instead of being a clearly misguided wasted effort from the start

I wasted some 2-3 years of my life in CSGO too when I was younger. All my free time, down the drain basically. It wasn’t even fun after a while, just a hard, tiring grind. Attempted to compete on semi-pro level, somehow got it to my head that it was possible. Did compete ultimately, but none of my teams made it. Never got anywhere and the day I finally got off it was the best day of my adult life. It was bad.

I feel ashamed to admit this out loud. It’s just so cringeworthy. But it does some good to keep my head level and remember the shortcomings of my younger days.

Nowadays the closest I get to “addiction” level is bingeing a few months worth of evenings on the likes of Crusader Kings 3, M&B Bannerlord, Stellaris or Rimworld. Much more sane since it’s not as intensive, it can be paused at any moment, and ultimately there’s an end to it, so it just naturally withers away from my days eventually.

Believe it or not, I’ve been a part of it since I was born. I didn’t just come to be in a vacuum. I’ve influenced the society as much as anyone, we work together to make it better, we are a team, we protest. We sign petitions. We vote. We talk and talk and talk and have kids that will, too, become a part of what we’ve worked hard for and against and with.

Being proud of the team, of yourself, or the fact that you with your team are actively succeeding in not becoming a fascist shithole like the US or Russia for example. It’s not nothing. It’s worth being proud of. And takes effort, work, input every single day of every single month of every single year.

Yeah. I’m proud of myself and everyone around me. But I’m also proud of what we’ve worked together to build. This country did not stay this way by itself. It’d be ruined by capitalism and fascism the second we, the people of this country, stopped fighting against it and making this nation something to feel proud belonging to.

I think most people who are sensible but claim pride for some collective achievement or team or whatever, do so outwardly mostly because it’d be tiring to always include a philosophy lecture about distinction and differentiating between one’s own and others’ achievements. When we think about it actively, we can realize the faults and the details and could put them in words, but who the fuck has the patience to go in depth about all that each time they state they are proud of their team, their friends, etc.?

It’s just easier to say I’m proud of team xyz and hope the other party has the mental facilities to understand that it’s not a simple matter when you break it to pieces and start philosophing about it, but it’s just convenient and more prudent not to go into details or full analysis mode on all that every time…

One can be proud despite its shortcomings. Nothing is perfect in this world. But there are things worth being proud of, despite understanding its flaws and being consistently critical of it as a whole.

I am proud of my nation and its progressive, socialist nature, yet I am fully, and painfully so, aware of it’s shortcomings and problems.

But despite the problems, it’s extremely hard for me not to feel pride for the way we handle things within and without, especially in comparison to the rest of the world. We’ve been consistently at the top of the most socially progressive charts of the world, having also been denoted the worlds happiest country for over 5 years in row, and so on.

I do have my own prides, things I’m not ashamed to claim being very good at, and I do have a lot of very loud criticism against my nation too. But I remain overall proud just because we dare to be, against most odds, progressive and socialist.

I would defend my country, even picking up arms, because the chances are, the invader will simply be worse. Lead to worse overall situation here. Anyone surpassing us on either social or progressive counts, would be almost certainly not invading anyone, let alone us.

Maybe I am the fool the quote talks about, the good-at-nothing simpleton falling back to national pride for lack of any of my own. But I do not feel like one and I certainly have a lot more, explicitly outside the concept of a nation and this specific nation too, prides and accomplishments to be proud of.

I don’t think national pride is all that bad. I think it can be reasonable if the nation is best at its class on things most important and dear to you. Of course most national pride around the world is rooted on shitty stuff, and most nationally pride people usually being neo-nazi assholes, yet I still remain steadfast in my opinion that it need not be so.

It can be fine. I am sure of that.

I would have never known better had I not gone to read the comments and see this…

Really can’t seem to understand how this works.

Never did any “magic eyes” or whatever books as a kid, so maybe I just don’t have any practice in this, but whether I try to cross my eyes focusing beyond the screen, or “above” the screen, I can’t get the resulting middle image to look like anything other than a blur.

Perhaps my eyes are somehow odd on the other hand. I don’t need glasses though, so I’m a bit skeptical that’s it.

I tried all the guides I found in this thread, including the floating hot dogs, attempting varying distances both with the screen and the finger, then trying the wall-eyed variants too for all of them, none of them work for me.

So odd. It seems it should work. No idea what I am doing wrong here.

Or is this the joke? To get people to squint for minutes on end on their screen?

I still use a few profucts with a similar concept, though the beads are of cellulose or similar fiber as opposed to plastic. I’m not aware if they’re problematic or not, so I thought I’d comment in the hope that perhaps someone who feels strongly about these things might educate me if they are indeed bad for you or the environment or something.

Re: the consent: I was initially confused like you, but while I’m not OP and can’t say for certain, I’m pretty sure they extend the concept of consent to also include being a target of lust, as in the target isn’t intending to, or consenting to, being a target of lust. As in using an image of someone/something not consenting to that use case, as material for self pleasure for example. I think.

Weirdly enough that isn’t something I’ve ever thought about actively. In a way it makes sense to extend it thus though. But then again it seems like a complex topic I’ve no expertise in, so I’ll just leave it at that.

I am in this picture and I don’t like it

Words to live by. Well put.

A few years of finasteride (+ minoxidil) here; It likely affects people differently, but for me this combo has very effectively ceased my baldening, or at the very least make it very much slower, but I’ve not got any new growth or return of significant amount of growth on areas that already got very thin.

I’d be realistic about the potential results, maybe a bit skeptical even, just not to get too excited and then disappointed.

Worth mentioning, too, is that as I understand, this is a lifetime deal. Once you drop them, the process is very likely to continue. Not sure about other corners of the world, but it’s not exactly cheap either.

It is slow to finally start kicking in properly, and it’s not exactly interesting. As I’ve come to understand, while this combo is actually somewhat proven to actually be provable/consistent clinically, and can result in new growth or regrowth, most don’t get that. I didn’t, anyway, and that’s just my general practitioners words, not a specialists, so take it for what it is, with a grain of salt.

Edit: I also use ketokonazode shampoo or whatever it’s called infrequently. Not sure if that’s an active part of my own success with stopping the shed and retaining what’s left, so maybe it’s worth mentioning. That and minoxidil I can get without prescription at least around here. Finasterid requires a prescription though.

For whatever it’s worth, I never finished it, as an avid crpg fan. It’s not the hours it takes, it’s the constant feeling that you’ve got so much to do but no real idea where to start, or where to go, or what to do. If it was a world map with clickable places, like the original baldurs gates or even the somewhat intimidating but still much more digestible owlcat’s pathfinders style “railroad” experience, it’d been much nicer. But the free map to roam just makes both decisions harder, and also the seashell collector inside me awaken and suddenly I have to explore each pixel of the map in case I miss something, which is very exhausting on top of the already exhausting freedom.