DearOldGrandma

OG Mario Kart and Mario Party 2. Played those until I found Halo, then my video-game addiction set in

It’s not a party psychedelic. It’s short if you compare it to your typical perception of time, but feels vastly longer; your perception of everything changes. If you take any MAOIs, don’t touch DMT. It’ll last longer and you’ll likely be miserable if you aren’t experienced with it.

Also, n,n,dmt gives you more visuals than 5-meo dmt, but 5-meo dmt is better for introspection in my experience. Each have their purpose, and neither should be at all underestimated. If you take either, understand you don’t control the trip once you’ve begun. Let it guide you, accept what happens during it, and find a way to learn from the experience. As with anything, do a lot of research prior to taking it, test it, and use it when you’re in a good setting and state of mind for it.

8-Ball for president, fuck it

Ahh, I see. Well, it’s natural to congregate to groups you’re similar to - no one likes feeling uncomfortable. But a couple months of being uncomfortable is what it takes. Find some sort of common ground and work from there. Even if you remove any biases of your own, there are those who won’t do the same for you. It isn’t right, but it’s understandable. If someone doesn’t reciprocate any meaningful interest, move on to the next person. It just takes persistence and the desire to interact with other cultures. As I mentioned in my post, building stigmas and unconscious biases down the road often happen because there’s little to no real personal interaction with other groups. Not saying you will, just something I’ve noticed in people through the years, no matter how well-intentioned they may be.

Sure! It will be uncomfortable at first, and you will face some difficulties at first. The hardest thing is to build a friendship. But once you’re actually friends with someone, that’s your chance to fully dive in. Just be sure to learn and recognize any of your own unconscious biases and leave them at the door. Can’t realistically expect anyone else to accept you if you don’t do that first (this is for everyone. We all have these, which is why it’s important to recognize them and lose them)

I understand not all locales have this advantage, but I was fortunate that Boston often had festivals organized by these communities. If your city has any, go to them. Go to concerts, bars, community events, religious gatherings if you’re into it, or any other event where you can more easily interact with people. All it takes is to build one meaningful connection and then your network will naturally grow.

Posting my reply to someone else.

I was born in the US, in Mississippi, but moved to Boston, Massachusetts, as a young adult. I am mixed from white and pacific islander - I look mostly white, just with Asian features - but a significant portion of my friends were black as a child, and then I fell in with an international community of Haitian-, Nigerian-, and Latin-Americans when I moved to South Boston.

As with anywhere, most people are nice if you express interest in them and their cultures. There will be preconceived notions for some people towards you, and it’s important to understand that most stigmas stem from an absence of interaction. It can be surprisingly easy to break those barriers if you just make any sort of effort. It can sometimes be hard, but it’s so worth it. The kindest people I have met have been from these communities, mostly I think because they’ve worked so hard to build a better life for themselves and their families and friends.

Few things are as rewarding as being accepted into different communities. You learn and experience so much that you wouldn’t otherwise. My favorite experiences have been meeting the families of friends, being invited to cookouts with traditional foods and drink you have never had, and having an incredibly reliable community to lean on in times of hardship - we all help each other because we’re all in the rat race together. All it takes is some humility and a willingness to learn.

I was born in the US, in Mississippi, but moved to Boston, Massachusetts, as a young adult. A significant portion of my friends were black as a child, and then I fell in with an international community of Haitian-, Nigerian-, and Latin-Americans when I moved to South Boston.

As with anywhere, most people are nice if you express interest in them and their cultures. There will be preconceived notions for some people towards you, and it’s important to understand that most stigmas stem from an absence of interaction. It can be surprisingly easy to break those barriers if you just make any sort of effort. It can sometimes be hard, but it’s so worth it. The kindest people I have met have been from these communities, mostly I think because they’ve worked so hard to build a better life for themselves and their families and friends.

Few things are as rewarding as being accepted into different communities. You learn and experience so much that you wouldn’t otherwise. My favorite experiences have been meeting the families of friends, being invited to cookouts with traditional foods and drink you have never had, and having an incredibly reliable community to lean on in times of hardship - we all help each other because we’re all in the rat race together. All it takes is some humility and a willingness to learn.

Don’t say never - it can find you at the most unexpected time and place. It can be different for everyone, but generally you feel and know that this other person would do almost anything to help you. Regardless of what you go through, you know that everything will be fine since you have each other. Being loved means you have an advocate and someone who validates you, despite all your flaws and shortcomings. It means you can be brutally honest with them, and vice versa, because you want the best for them.

Being in love means you can fight and argue, but find some sort of common ground and go from there - because they’re interested in your perspective and you in theirs, even if you disagree with it. At the end of the day, they’re your rock and your fire.

Another person shouldn’t give you purpose or meaning - everyone has to make that for themselves, and it will likely change through time. But it does mean you have someone to stand alongside you in that journey, excited and eager to share and experience the journey.

Gungi! It’s even mentioned in TCW series and Bad Batch that, while incredibly rare, there have been several accounts of Wookie force users through the millenia. Would love to see a series set 100yrs or so after the OT of Gungi helping to re-establish or expand a new galactic Jedi Order as a threat from the Void threatens the stability of the galaxy - with the wisdom of Yoda but without the complacency due to his experience coming of age in TCW and the Galactic Civil War

Do you live to argue? Did you even read what I wrote, or do you only cherry pick? You’re resorting to whataboutism. And for the record no, because Russia is a full-blown oligarchy that holds farce “presidential” elections. The fact Trump, the leader at the time, lost shows we’re doing better than Russia is.

We both support progressive candidates and ideologies. I hate Biden, but I live in a state where I’ll have to vote for him. But since you don’t want to have an actual conversation, we’re done here. Talk like this is why Republicans are doing so well despite over half of the US hating their guts.

Alright, you’re just arguing for the sake of it at this point and putting words in my mouth lol. While we’re technically in a capitalistic oligarchy, we do have some democratic processes at play. I don’t like it, and you don’t either. Which is weird because you’re seemingly arguing against the only candidate that is actively trying to maintain that semblance of democracy. Trump has actively tried to undermine this semblance of democracy in each of the recent elections, even in the election he won.

Let’s circle back for you. Biden is the lesser evil of the two. When these are your only realistic choices in our current system, there’s only one that’s obvious. Campaign for structural reform and for politicians that want to reform and improve the system we have.

You’re talking about primaries and I’m talking about presidential generals. I voted Bernie each time in the primaries because I think the DNC establishment is too far right. I personally think Bernie isn’t progressive enough, but this is the US.

We’re literally in agreement on this part, and I said Biden was morally dubious. Guy’s a terrible person and a horrible politician, don’t get me wrong. But I’ll take Biden over Trump any day, because at least Biden has never incited an insurrection

One evil respects democracy and at least wants to better the lives of most the people in the country. Morally dubious, but has helped more people than harmed.

The other respects only himself and wants to better the life of only himself while using anyone and anything he can to achieve that - remember the time he claimed the election was stolen before it was even concluded? The guy literally has a psychologist in his family who detailed how awful he really is, and was before he became president.

And then there’s RFK Jr. who had a worm starve to death inside his brain. He isn’t necessarily evil, just horribly stupid

Not everyone has the ability or capability to leave their home.

I’ll bite. I had a brother with special needs pass away a year ago next week. He was born with cerebral palsy, was blind, nonverbal, totally dependent on caretakers (myself, my siblings and mother, his nurses) for literally everything since he didn’t have functionally-independent motor control. We were told he’d live to 10, and he lived to 29; he was a bundle of joy and loved going out when he could. People would stare and kids would ask questions, but we loved sharing his story and my brother liked when people were curious about it.

But, his health started declining in 2014. He had several close calls, and we told doctors each time to try their best with the circumstances they were given. On more than one occasion, his nurses or our mother would actually be with the doctors during hospital stays to assist with him since he was case they didn’t have much experience in and didn’t want to make his issues worse. That said, he had a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) since he had a trache, and was brittle enough to die from chest compressions.

I prepped for my brother’s death countless times over 8 years. We all did. When he passed, we were so obviously distraught. But we were also relieved, in a way, that he wasn’t in pain anymore in the end. We let out our emotions that had been stored for those years, and the grieving process is still continuing. We all put our lives on hold to help him, and he just became our lives; our goal simply was to make him comfortable and let him know he was loved, knowing we couldn’t realistically do more. We spent years watching him in pain, watching him gradually lose his fervor and personality.

If you read this far, thank you. Not really sure what else to say, I just want to share this since it’s occupied my mind a lot.

TLDR; Preparing for the worst outcomes, coupled with grief, over prolonged periods of time really disrupt your emotions and outlooks. Needless to say, my family became stronger proponents of state-assisted suicide after this experience. It couldn’t be granted to my brother, but maybe we can help people in the future that coupd really use it. People understand, but not nearly as many are truly empathetic because they can’t be - they’ve never been through a similar experience. I simply ask that people try to be sympathetic rather than to pass judgement on others.

If it’s good, that’s great! If it isn’t good, then I hope everyone involved enjoyed making it. This isn’t the first time we’ve been through this.