If they are into getting nerdy with charts and tables, there might be a chance to hook them up with Dungeons and Dragons… 🤔

That’s kinda true for any online-based service. Having the the software FOS is great, but someone somewhere has got to run the servers.

I wouldn’t be able to write this, if there weren’t people who set up the instances for my user account and this community here.
The difference with FOSS and the fediverse especially is, that any of us could be one of these people.

“Number go up” is all that counts.

Those sites train their models for SEO is how they get top results.

And I agree, somtimes even the domains look like they are generated on the fly to suit your search keywords.

To my old ears, ‘bloggers’ sounds way too much like the self-employed people with a web-site about their hobby, that they are trying to make a living through.

But there were already content farms, that paid an army of underpaid people to write something about a subject they had no clue about and plaster it with SEO keywords in order to attract ad revenue.

Amazing shot! Congrats. Dragonflies in flight are insanely challenging subjects.

What was the actual focal length you used?

I don’t like that I can’t entirely turn off the “image optimization” bullshit,

Did you know, that that is most likely a feature of your camera app, rather than your phone itself and you could simply use a different app?

Open Camera for example allows for a lot of manual control. You could probably also install Google Camera if you wanted, I even have that on my GrapheneOS device, but don’t grant it any network permissions.
The downside is, that the manufacturer’s preinstalled app is most likely to take your actual hardware into account and work with it in ways, that a third party option couldn’t. But that would mostly be part of said ‘image optimization’, so you probably won’t miss it, if you deliberately want to turn those off.

Aaaand I’m pretty sure your phone would allow you to also save RAW photos alongside the jpgs it creates. Those should be free from any “optimization”, or at least it can be completely reverted in editing software, like the Snapseed App (again a Google product, so it gets the same treatment from me as mentioned above).

I guess there’s no point arguing against a closed worldview.

That really sounds like you worked out some important things. I can totally understand how those issues can wear you down, especially if you can’t bring yourself to resolve them. Glad you found someone who could help you deal with them. And I hope you can make progress on the rest of your issues as well.

Honestly, you sound like a good person, who deserves to be happier, just from that glimpse, I’ve read. All the best!

Do you mind sharing, what kind of changes those were and how they were important for you to feel better?

Like I said, I don’t disagree with things sucking in general.

Perception is very important, though.
It would be possible to be perfectly depressed, even if things did not, in fact, suck.
But of course, it’s a lot easier to be depressed and to believe, that everything sucks, if that is actually reflected in reality.

A big part of combatting depression, is to focus your perception on things, that don’t suck and changing the ones that can be changed, to suck less; instead of making yourself sick by fussing about the things you cannot change anyway.

I struggle with that every day.

That explanation falls a bit short. While it surely explains a lot of people, it doesn’t apply to everybody. There are definitely also people (some of whom I know personally) who are neither stupid & self-centered nor depressed.

What you gotta ask yourself though: If it is really, that everything just sucks so bad, then why isn’t everybody depressed.

I mean, I don’t even disagree. Everything indeed does suck so bad. But there’s a surprising number of people, that seem to cope with that fact way better than I do.

Turns out, I actually do have depression. If you suspect, that you do too: seek help. It won’t change that everything sucks so bad. But I already learned to cope a little better, and I hope you can, too.

Thanks for the ressource.

Your perspective kind of reaffirms what I’ve heard about drug use in general from a plant-pharmacologist I once met on field trip in Central Asia. She pointed out, that drugs used to be tied into cultural practices and rituals, that also kept them in a specific setting and for specific purposes and attributed a lot of the problems to the mindless consumption we have today.

You also reaffirmed, that I’m better off abstaining from psychedelics, since I’m the antithesis to having a “good headspace”. And I’d be pretty worried about what they could set loose.

Well, I read your first comment as a sincere answer to the OP question, which was somehow directed at people who are actually homophobic, so I had you registered as an asshole anyways. 😉 Should’ve looked at your user’s instance, to see that that is unlikely, but my client doesn’t show that by default and I don’t do background checks before posting one-liner remarks.

Your first sentence came off a bit smug, especially since you couldve read my clarification on another comment I received on that. But it made me wonder, why I’m getting such weird reactions and in light of the misunderstanding it was deserved a bit. So no hard feelings. Good on you for noticing it, and I very much appreciate the apology.

I’m indeed on some kind of spectrum, depends which one you’re talking about, though.

I just realized, we had a misunderstanding here.

You were talking about the heterosexual men, who are scared, having thought about sucking dick many times. Thus, they are scared because of their own thoughts.

I thought you meant the gay men had thought about sucking dick many times, and that fact scares the heterosexual men.
And I meant that heterosexual women would have thought about sucking dick as well, thus the heterosexual men must be scared of these women, too.

I thought it through, but I misunderstood your comment.

Dave England would definitely call it food, way down to the stomach.

We had drug prevention class (as a project week) in high school. One street worker guy just informed us, what is commonly used and what these drugs do, their dangers and safety precautions, if we decide to take them anyways. That was way better, and more effective, than the “drugs are bad”-speech the cop gave the other day.

LSD was the only one, that sounded somewhat intriguing to me. Never tried it, because I’m worried about bad trips and possible permanent damage. What is your take on that?

I have a friend who had ONE geology class in university, majored in physical geography. But he is known as the rocks guy, since nobody knows what his major actually is.

I was on an island holiday recently, where the most prominent rock formation is simply called “the rock”. I sent him one of these perspective trick photos where it locks like I’m licking ‘the rock’ with the message: “me, a real geologist”.
He was mildly amused.

English is my second language, and a lot of my English skills just consist of rearranged song lyrics and movie quotes.

So, what can I say except: you’re welcome!