So again I’m basing this on myself. I think a healthy relationship doesn’t necessarily require a lot of personal change. It requires healthy communication, it requires healthy compromise, but if you’re compatible (and something of this comes with the maturity to understand who you are and what your needs are, versus your wants) then you can fit together well with the right person without needing to change who you are.

And I don’t love the pairing of the concept of growing (as a person) to growing to be something, or someone, who fits someone else. When I grow as a person it’s learning new skills or trying a new hobby, it’s growing me. Not conforming myself to someone else.

Which is a very important distinction because I grew up with a narcissist for a mother and it made me very codependent, and I essentially lost my 20s to failed relationships spent learning that it isn’t about making whoever I’m with happy, and it isn’t about making myself better to them. It’s about knowing who I am, and embracing that so I don’t enter or stay in a relationship that isn’t already a good fit.

I’m with someone now who had the same trauma. We’ve discussed these observations. We know who we both are, and we fit. And as we grow, individually, as we pursue knowledge and hobbies and help others, we communicate, we care for one another, and we continue to fit.

So again, I’m only pulling from my life experience, but I feel like anyone can settle down or find the right person. They just have to know who they are and what they want, and find someone else who knows who they are and what they want.

I have no idea what that means.

She’s only a few years younger than I am and I only just now found someone to settle down with who makes me happy. Based on that and nothing else, I think she’ll get there as long as she keeps trying.

If I ever embrace my fate as a lonely housewife book author, I’m going to have a rough time, because the kind of people who would forever love me for producing my books and sharing them as free (with the option to donate) and the kind of people who buy lonely housewife books are two completely different circles and I wouldn’t be able to spend all the time necessary to ‘market’ myself online to get the books in the hands of people who want them, if I’m trying to spend that time writing.

Maybe what we need is an apparatus. A website where authors can share full-size books, users can vote on them, and if you like them enough you can give money to those writers.

I just don’t know how we’d get that, be able to allow any author to share their book, and still have quality control.

I haven’t looked at or held or otherwise directly perceived a kindle in many years now, but when I did it was insanely easy to just pop any old file into a converter and slip that onto the kindle and pirate and read as you like. Did they put a stop to that with some proprietary nonsense?

Not to be annoying but I actually carry a nice steel thermos with me and pour anything I might drink into the thermos.

It only feels like a hassle the first time. You get a steel thermos with a steel straw and now you’re really cooking with gas.

I’m agreeing with all the people who say they don’t notice until after they’ve read a post, but I wanted to add a Yo ho! to my comment.

Are you kidding? The nails are also pirates!

Disclaimer: I did this because it’s what’s easiest for me to read, and hopefully it’ll help someone else.

This Executive Order does the following:

• All federal agencies, including independent regulatory commissions, are now subject to direct White House control.
• Regulations cannot be issued without presidential approval.
• The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) can now withhold funding from independent agencies if they don’t align with White House priorities.
• All federal employees must follow the President’s and Attorney General’s interpretation of the law, eliminating legal independence.
• A White House Liaison is to be installed in every independent regulatory agency to enforce direct presidential control.

This is the biggest executive power grab in U.S. history.

• This formally ends the concept of an “independent” regulatory agency, dismantling one of the last barriers to absolute executive power.
• This order effectively erases the last major restraints on executive power.
• The federal government no longer operates with checks and balances.
• Regulations and laws are now dictated solely by the President.

If left unchecked, this is the moment the U.S. ceases to function as a democratic republic.

#The President Now Controls All Regulatory Agencies

The SEC, FTC, FCC, and FEC are no longer independent.

• The Stock Market is now subject to White House control, enabling insider trading, favoritism, and targeting of political opponents.
• Antitrust laws can be selectively enforced, allowing administration-friendly monopolies to expand unchecked.
• Political opponents in the tech sector, media, or finance can be targeted with regulatory action while allies are protected.

Elections are now influenced by direct White House oversight of the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

The FDA, EPA, and consumer protection agencies are fully politicized.

• Drug approvals, food safety regulations, and environmental policies can be rewritten for political or corporate interests.
• Climate change regulations can be erased overnight.
• Scientific research is now subject to White House approval before public release.

Implication: There is no longer any neutral enforcement of economic, environmental, or election laws. Everything is now dictated by political loyalty.

The White House Can Block Agency Budgets or Direct Funds Elsewhere

• The OMB can now adjust funding allocations for independent agencies.
• This gives the President the power to defund agencies without needing Congress.
• Regulatory agencies that challenge presidential policies will be quietly strangled of resources.
• Agencies loyal to the President will receive full funding—even illegally.

Implication: Congress no longer controls federal spending on regulatory enforcement. The executive branch can choke out opposition agencies and reward allies.

The President & Attorney General Have Final Say on All Legal Interpretations All federal employees must follow White House interpretations of the law.

• The Attorney General’s opinions override agency lawyers, inspectors general, and independent counsel.
• Agencies cannot adopt their own interpretations of legal statutes—everything must align with the President’s views.
• The President can rewrite federal legal interpretations overnight.

Implication: Legal consistency is gone. Agencies cannot push back against corrupt, illegal, or unconstitutional directives because the President’s interpretation is the only interpretation allowed.

Installing White House Liaisons in All Regulatory Agencies

A “White House Liaison” will be placed in every independent agency.

• This ensures constant presidential oversight of daily operations.
• These liaisons will report agency actions back to the White House and enforce political compliance.
• Agency directors will no longer have the ability to act without White House approval.

Implication: There is now a direct enforcement arm inside every regulatory body. Even agencies that resist presidential control will be internally monitored and controlled.

• Every regulatory body—from financial markets to environmental protections—is now politicized. Congress no longer controls federal funding—agencies must obey the White House or risk defunding.
• The President’s legal interpretations override all agency autonomy, eliminating independent enforcement of federal laws.
• The federal bureaucracy, once designed to be resistant to corruption, is now completely subject to presidential loyalty.

A someone else with ADHD, it absolutely wrecks the flow I get into trying to read it.

E: It’s really important though so I’m going to reply to myself in a bit after making an edit that would make it easier for me, myself, to read, in the hopes it’ll help someone else like me. (The process of editing it will make it something I can read, lol.)

A fire? At a Sea Parks? It’s wrecking my head! If she had said that her parents drowned, I’d be the happiest man in the world!

My favorite example of this is when Scrubs added Dr. Grace Miller, she was literally written to be Dr. Cox, if he was a woman.

And people despised her.

My entire counterargument is the fast fashion episode. That one was brilliant.

“It just seems like a weird place to go on fire” was the best, I agree entirely!

I bet it’s playing a song from Sonic the Hedgehog.

We know who runs the internet.

There was a subreddit for people putting like outfits on their peckers, and that’s about the only thing I think the fediverse is missing. And before anybody tells me to start that community, I don’t have a dick of my own, and yes, I’m aware that it’s a skill issue.

Babish did? Jesus. Well my opinion of him has gone down a bit.