Asklemmy

I, like many and hopefully some of y'all, stopped paying my student loans during Covid and never restarted paying because we're supposed to have gotten relief from this debt that should've never existed in the first place. Now we have Trump coming back which kills the possibility of debt relief. So should I start repaying so I don't get my wages garnished? Or do we think the government is going to be too inefficient to come after it?

Edit: At one point when I heard that it was the only way to get forgiveness, I moved all my debt from a third party to being a government loan. Does that change anything?

Basically what the title says, two questions:

1. Do you feel lonely or socially isolated?
2. If you are, what are you trying to change that?

According to the WHO it's an epidemic,

I've been emigrating to different countries about every 15 years and had to rebuild a network of friends from scratch every time. The younger I was the easier it was obviously. But that is a lot of work and you need to invest time and energy which I sometimes don't have so much, especially now with a small child which needs a lot of attention.

We meet up as a family with other families about once a month and it's really great, but while my wife keeps in contact with the other mothers in between online, somehow we dads don't even have a group chat where we would do that and perhaps propose to meet up, it's always the women who propose it.

It's kind of weird that its like that and I should change it.

While the WHO doesn't call it outright an epidemic, it seems they think it's such a big problem that they created a specific commission to foster social connection: https://www.who.int/news/item/15-11-2023-who-launches-commission-to-foster-social-connection

As the title says. My mom was always nagging, neurotic, overbearing, and domineering. She needed to control every aspect of my lives, to the point when I was a teen and still felt dependent and handicapped. She always imposed her anxieties and worries into me, it’s just so draining. She only feels comfortable when I leave the house for school. If I leave for any other reason, she seems exasperated. I prefer living in her house over living alone because I don’t have the means to do the latter. She gets mad that I don’t know how to drive and says she wants to teach me, but then refuses to teach me how. Just the other day, my brother who is in his late 20s, said he wanted to take a taxi to his place after a family gathering, and she just flipped out on him. She said “we all arrive here together and we all leave here together.” She just ruined the night with her screaming. That’s how fucked up she is. My grown brother, who has his own place, still has to give my mom control over the most trivial aspects of his life. That’s how deep our fear of her is. I can go on, and I’m willing to give more specific details if asked. I blame my weak father and deranged mother for a lot of the flaws I have now. It feels like I’m dealing with a nagging monster who never dies, and that kills me to say because I do love her (despite hating her) and will cry like a removed when she dies. However, I’m just at the point where I just want her to shut the fuck up, and stick to doing meals and laundry. Can anyone else relate? My life is already not perfect and a nagging monster by my side doesn’t help. It’s like she wants to infuse our egos together.

just wondering

I bought a new android phone, now it wants me to download Microsoft 365 for certain file types. My question is: Are there other apps that are better than Microsoft for documents on Android.?

Edit: Thanks for the quick responses. Currently trying Collabora.

Recently downloaded the phyphox from F-Droid and thought about this while thinking about what all stuff I could do with it.

Are there any online resources about such stuff?

What all things have you(or people you know, in your locality etc) done along that line?
And not only big thigs, if you're tracking other stuff, please do share your experience on that too.

Edit:
Sharing the github page of the app too:
https://github.com/phyphox/phyphox-android

I am looking for anyone writing about the various theories and "revelations" regarding extraterrestrial and cryptoterrestrial technologies and their implication in geopolitics.

Specifically, I am looking for analyses that seek to identify conditions that might be true if we assume one or more actors of various classes (states, militaries, intelligence communities, alliances, non-state actors, "aliens" themselves) has possession of non-contiguous technologies. Having identified some of these conditions, I would hope the analysis then goes on to compare historical and current conditions to see if there is evidence to support or contradict such possession.

An example might be an analysis that shows a state, like the USA, with possession of such non-contiguous technology, if they were able to make it battle ready, might under invest in traditional warfare production like what we see today.

Another example might be how a state like the USA might use limited conflicts to gather intelligence on capabilities from other states that could reveal those states' level of non-contiguous tech readiness, and then analyze how the Ukraine war might fit those conditions or predict how the prosecution of a hot conflict with China in Taiwan or Korea might look under these conditions.

Does anyone know of any writers doing this sort of work?

Maybe you haven't been convinced by a good enough argument. Maybe you just don't want to admit you are wrong. Or maybe the chaos is the objective, but what are you knowingly on the wrong side of?

In my case: I don't think any games are obliged to offer an easy mode. If developers want to tailor a specific experience, they don't have to dilute it with easier or harder modes that aren't actually interesting and/or anything more than poorly done numbers adjustments. BUT I also know that for the people that need and want them, it helps a LOT. But I can't really accept making the game worse so that some people get to play it. They wouldn't actually be playing the same game after all...

Being able to just simply move on from something as easily.

Normally by this point in time in the year, I would already have 80-90% of my holiday shopping done, yes, even before Black Friday, I just try to stay on top of it. However, I don't feel connected to Christmas as a holiday and don't want to take part in gift-giving this year. I've got three children and some nieces and nephews, though primarily it's my children I buy for, and I've bought for them every year of their lives. I think it's due to a few different factors, there's some amount of guilt for having participated as long as I have, but at the same time, I feel that I shouldn't be participating anymore, or at least for this year. Is anybody else feeling this way this year?

1. I'm not a Christian, more Agnostic/Atheist, so it's not even anything I feel particularly spiritual about, it's just been this secular tradition that my family did when I was a kid and I've just kept going with it out of sheer momentum without really questioning it. I wanted to give my kids a "normal" childhood and obviously you do Christmas for your kids if you're a good parent, right?
2. I've been the only active participant ever since my kids were born. My wife, a Christian, doesn't even participate in gift-giving and has even actively sabotaged the Santa Claus "game". She's literally told my young kids (12 , 7, & 6) that there is no Santa Claus and it's just been me giving the gifts. She's always done this, but the kids have at least pretended to play along most years (12 year old has known for awhile). So now I feel like I just want to throw the towel in, what's the use anymore? It's obvious nobody believes in it anymore, why bother?
3. My wife and I are already talking about getting a divorce (due to other long-standing issues) and things have been tense in the household for some time now. I want a dissolution because we agree on most terms, she refuses to participate and won't budge unless it's a full divorce. I'm hesitant to bring in lawyers for a divorce with how biased it feels like the court system is in divorces, I would rather have everything negotiated between us beforehand and bring a lawyer in for dealing with details.
4. I've been getting treated poorly by my wife and other family members particularly bad this year. My kids have been fine, and I hate to feel like I'm "taking it out on them", but I don't know why I'm contributing to this family holiday when I'm being made to feel like the black sheep of the family, like I don't contribute anything anyways (despite being the only one who has ever participated in gift-giving).
5. Due to the above family situation and some other events, I'm feeling a bit of depression. I realize that giving gifts could probably raise my spirits, but it just all feels so hollow, like even the temporary hit of happiness from just buying consumer goods for others isn't enough to make it worthwhile.
6. The "magic" is pretty much already gone, probably due to a little bit of above the wife essentially spoiling Santa Claus for multiple years and also due to the kids just growing up naturally. I'm pretty sure all the kids already know what's going on, so there's just no impetus to keep the charade going, though it was always going to have transition at some point.
7. Some small part of me, despite not being religious, thinks that just mindless gift-giving of consumer goods is not "in the spirit" of Christmas. It's just this Retail-driven holiday being pushed on us by corporate overlords who want us to BUY MORE STUFF.
8. Financials are tighter this year. Certainly not the tightest it's ever been, I've been in much worse situations financially (and still bought gifts), but it is a factor this year, and with potential upcoming hardships due to the incoming administration, it might be better to tighten the belt a little. If this was the only thing, it wouldn't be much of a factor for me.

I think I'll sit the kids down at least and talk it over with them, their ages seem young, yet they understand alot at their ages, but I feel like I'd rather be up-front with them about it, rather than them waking up Christmas morning expecting gifts and finding nothing under the tree. Just wondering if I'm just being a douche about the whole thing.

You can consider this installment four of my previous question which is the third installment.

Throughout history, we have developed many methods of telling time. The most famous two examples being the clock and the sundial. The ancient Egyptians invented the clepsydra, an extremely simple device that uses dripping water as a way to tell how much time has passed. There are also, for example, hourglasses, which flow sand as a measurement of time.

Suppose, though, you were an intelligent dolphin and, for some reason, had to always have a time reference on you. Being under the water seems to present a challenge, for technology like clocks and hourglasses don't seem to be possible to make under the water, a clepsydra certainly wouldn't work since you can't pour water underwater, and a sundial wouldn't have the proper lighting. So you must improvise in order to find a way to keep track of time. How would you improvise in order to keep track of time.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/28618334

She is 78 and thinks she is more tech savvy than the average person because she can check email, and use twitter and Facebook, and does a regular blog on Wordpress. She has been firmly entrenched (she thinks) in Windows since forever, but in reality she has very little understanding of how or why anything works the way it does, and has a very hard time adapting to change and remembering new ways of doing things.

This question was inspired by a conversation with someone I know on here who has been trying to curb theft. Specifically art theft. The person is an artist and has noticed how common (and sometimes seemingly random) art theft is and has been trying to curb it by taking a hit and hinting that her art is stealable (as in she wouldn't mind if it's stolen, as long as no deception is at play). This got us thinking, as though they are noble intentions and the massive backlash she has gotten for it comes off as weird, I don't think encouraging theft is a good idea, nor do I think it's a matter of kleptomania if it's digital (plus I think it would already curb kleptomania to say kleptomaniacs are allowed to take something, advice appreciated if available). But it got us talking about what they would even want to steal. Is the appeal in the rarity? The sensory input? Something else? The person is a "passive progressive" and has done something similar to curb compulsive lying, and it has somewhat worked, so maybe I'm wrong.

To those of you who habitually steal stuff or know someone who does, what aspects of stolen items increase the appeal to steal them?

The question of people acting out of character has fascinated me recently because I've been noticing a lot of celebrities (regular celebrities, sports celebrities, political celebrities, etc.) say and do things that would either seem are completely unlike them or should be unlike them, and I'm starting to question the assumption I've always had that this is an abnormal phenomenon.

From Arthur Miller (the author of The Crucible) encouraging witch hunts to the Daily Stoic throwing around premature psychological condemnations (quite unstoically), it's like I can't watch something without hearing about someone doing something unheard of (for that person) every few days. I am an avid football fan and they're known for being very passionate about left-leaning politics (not judging). A few nights ago, a few of them got a touchdown and randomly started celebrating with the "Trump dance" (yes, Trump has a trademarked dance now, like the Fortnite dance, also not judging that either). Sometimes I see this in regular people too. My old uni teacher for example is very lenient and otherwise never issues punishments to classmates that last more than a few days, but a week ago someone accidentally dropped a book on someone's lunch and she kicked him out of the class entirely. It was like watching that one Simpsons scene at the bar.

Do you see any moments like these from time to time? What's the most severe example of someone you know momentarily acting out of character?