My condolences. Where is this “competition breeds excellence” outcome that capitalism promised me?

Within the past year I shopped around for a new home internet provider. The legacy companies encouraged if not required talking to a human being to find out anything about service availability and rates and then be subject to a hard sales pitch. Appointment availability for the install was 2+ weeks out. The new fiber companies had all the info I could want clearly online, appointments available within 2 days, with minimal fuss. The legacy company humans were also often incorrect about their own product, potentially lying to make a sale.

If they act like a company from the 90s, they aren’t going to capture customers who came into adulthood after that.

That’s not even touching on the speeds they offer are slower than their competitors for a steeper price.

Multiple concussions and a spinal cord thing, probably not.

I am skeptical of the efficacy. So no, not without some serious studying on the practice, a doctor’s recommendation, and at least one second opinion. Comas aren’t without their risks.

Awesome. I’m glad it was a fit for you and best wishes on more improvements to your sleep.

Apparently, Richter consulted with a neuroscientist specializing in sleep on it. And Richter has a sequel, Sleep Circle, which I haven’t checked out yet but have seen positive recommendations a few times online.

Yep, lately it’s been Max Richter 's album Sleep.

Supplemented with eye mask, melatonin, and an attempt to keep bedtime and wake up hours very consistent. When I can’t sleep, sometimes the last resort is to go sleep somewhere else, like the living room couch or the guest bedroom. For some reason, that can break me out of the rut and fall asleep.

Not tech related.

Waiting to board a plane and then I’m going to nap so hard. I should get some jet engine wash tracks for sleeping normally at home. I am usually asleep before the plane takes off.

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I use an app that doesn’t show profile pictures by default.

I apply a user tag to anyone I want to recognize.

And I’m also atheist, but raised Catholic and had a few schoolmates who became priests or nuns, and even more who explored it but left before making a permanent commitment.

I’ve got enough anecdotal evidence to cast a very skeptical eye on your claim that homeless broke dudes are the ones that go into the priesthood. So in an effort to get something a little better than my anecdotes, I websearched the phrase “demographics of men who become priests”

And got this page, https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/over-400-men-in-u-s-to-be-ordained-in-2025-most-felt-called-to-priesthood-by-age-16/100087, which says:

On average, ordinands first started to consider becoming a priest at 16 years old, but 35% said they began to think about entering the priesthood in elementary school between the ages of 6 and 13.

Not lining up with your theory unless you think there’s a lot of homeless 16 year olds becoming priests.

And I guess caveat that I’m in US currently, most familiar with Western countries approach to Catholic religious life.

Who hasn’t experienced some personal calamity? Seems like something that can be retroactively applied to anyone.

Dude went into the seminary to become a priest after his girlfriend dumped him? Personal calamity! He’s hiding from future dumpings by becoming a priest!

I had some great aunts, now deceased, who became nuns and didn’t really own anything themselves personally.

I plan on telling her parents and surprising her by having them sign her up for the trip.

If she wants to go to Germany, she can talk to her own parents. I can’t imagine any good reason for you to get involved and talk to her parents without her knowing. Maybe I’m missing some context, but seems like a lot of not-your-business.

Engineering

When the pros no longer outweigh the cons.

I work in a field that offers full tuition reimbursement commonly, so money isn’t a barrier. No con there.

I don’t have kids, so that greatly alleviates time capacity. So some con there but not as much as a parent of young kid(s) would face.

I have progressed far enough in my career and am on a path where another degree won’t really help me reach my career goals, so no significant pro there.

Personal curiosity and ego do motivate me slightly. Even if I never use it at work, I would be keen to have work pay for another degree that I have personal interest in. I also like having advanced degrees solely for the accomplishment. So minor pros there.

In summary, not too late for me but easy to see that’s not the case for everyone else.

Anyone I’ve ever heard talking about the non-aggression principle spat red flags faster than a machine gun.

At best, they’re truly so dense and unsympathetic they don’t recognize actions that aren’t directly or intentionally causing harm do still cause harm (example, the free state project people leaving food out for black bears “because they can” without thought for their neighbors who then have to deal with more bears). At worst, it’s rape apologia (crap like statutory rape doesn’t exist because that minor “totally asked for it” and the rape didn’t cause physical damage).

What a fun read, ty. I went to the Talk page hoping for some back and forth about ensuring the description of the project was unbiased. Nope, nada, surpised there aren’t any free state project fans within the ranks of Wikipedia editing volunteers who would have something to say.

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