The dumb part to all this is how we are all talking about this idiot like it’s completely normal.

Any other leader, any other American leader at any other time and this would have been considered absolutely idiotic … but attributing this to this orange clown somehow makes it acceptable and normalized.

The dumb one is not Trump … the dumb ones are all of us talking about him as a normal part of our world.

Enjoy and celebrate any time you have together now, for as long as possible and as much as possible, if you get mad at one another, screw it all, apologize and talk and work through it as quickly as possible … because in the end, it feels like no time has passed at all.

Might as well be … you have no idea of the sadness I feel. I am completely normal, I go about my work and I do the things I always did before … on the outside everything is perfectly normal. Unfortunately, my mind, my thoughts and my perception of the world has changed … I no longer feel the same sense of joy and happiness of doing things … I always go back to thinking of the person I lost and how she is not here any more … it’s pervasive and deep. I feel like someone has draped a big heavy wet blanket over me and it hangs on me all the time. And yes … the colors of the world don’t seem to be as bright any more … they don’t fill me with the same awe and happiness they once did. They do cheer me up but it’s like lighting a tiny candle in a deep dark cave.

I’ve lost lots of people in my life … my brother, my aunts and uncles … friends from my age group, friends who were older, friends who were younger … my grandparents … both my parents … and I’ve handled all those with a lot acceptance and understanding … I lived through them with my wife who supported me through all of it … but this … this is like having your soul removed and you feel like you are operating your body like an empty vessel. Life feels very mechanical now … I go about doing things like I always did but everything is without meaning now and I constantly wonder why I am doing anything.

Enjoy every moment with her. There will be times of differences, arguments and disagreements … work your way through them and if there is ever any bad feeling, always go back and apologize … none of it matters. The greatest things that hurt the most right now are the memories of how I wanted to win arguments and got angry and mad over some stupid things. No relationship is ever perfect, you will miss out on things you like or want to do … but the same will be true for her … both of you will lose on certain things because you both want to be together. That is all within reason too … if either one of you is outright abusing or taking advantage of the other and the relationship is completely lopsided, then you got to leave that situation. Otherwise … shrug off any bad feelings, always go back and talk through them, no one is keeping score or racking up points … because in the end, all you will ever miss is being with that person whether in good times or in bad.

Enjoy whatever time you have together because if you think you have years or decades to be together … in the end, no matter how long it lasted, it feels like no time has gone by at all.

My wife of 30 years died a few months ago and I’m having to adjust to life without her.

Life is freakin weird now … I feel like some kind of ghost that doesn’t exist … I feel like a big part of my life died with her and at the same time I feel like I’m alive but not fully … I’m alive but not fully … I feel like part of me disappeared but I didn’t die … quite honestly, sometimes I feel like a ghost that didn’t fully cross over and I’m stuck in this life until I can move on.

I have a ton of supports, family and friends, work and things to do and I keep very busy with stuff … but all of it just doesn’t mean much to me any more.

And family and friends keep telling me I have all the freedom in the world to do whatever I want … but you know what? … life is no longer enjoyable when you don’t have the person you want to share everything with. I had so many plans and things I really, really wanted to do … but now it’s all meaningless and pointless … I have no real enjoyment for many things any more. Even turning on the TV to watch something, anything no longer really thrills me and I watch something for a few minutes, my mind wanders and I have to go do something else. I go online and it’s the same thing, I read part of something and I have to move on to the next thing … I play video games and I can’t concentrate on it for too long.

About the only thing left to me now is riding my motorcycle but I can’t even do that because the weather is still too cold here in northern Ontario … so I can’t even enjoy that.

And in the meantime, I have to watch the world burn … life is just very strange for me at the moment.

Trading in existing items is not exactly capitalism … that’s just plain old bartering.

Capitalism, especially the modern form, is when you use your existing or inherited wealth to buy or develop companies who generate wealth from the work of other people to create brand new products or services. It’s exploitative because capitalists take the hard work of many people who create brand new products and then claim full or majority ownership over those products without having done anything except claim ownership.

What you are doing is taking old discarded things that either have no more value or lesser value and taking your own effort and time to recreate value and barter it to someone else. The only person you’ve exploited in the transaction is yourself … but you reap all the benefit. And no one can go back and say that the product that you just traded is stolen profit from the previous owner … the previous owner had thrown it away and didn’t value it any more or even considered it trash to be thrown away.

Flipping isn’t capitalism … it’s just good economic sense for the individual.

Unless you turn it all into a multimillion dollar business with employees, real estate and a corporation … it isn’t capitalism.

Buy stuff on ebay and start trading to bigger and better things. If you work at it hard enough, you’ll end up with trading items worth thousands without having spent more than $75.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/steven-ortiz-porsche-trade-craigslist,news-7544.html

We did a little tour on our own into Germany one spring, about 20 years ago. It was only a few days, we didn’t have much money and we absolutely didn’t know what we were doing. We rented a car and just started wandering. It was just at the point of technology where GPS was still new. We didn’t have any so we just started driving with a shitty map and no clue.

We had done some traveling in other countries before and we had met several famously obnoxious German tourists. We had partly expected to meet equally arrogant Germans in their home country.

Instead we met the most open, kind hearted, brilliant people ever. Everywhere we stopped, we’d meet three or four locals who were more than happy to give directions, recommend restaurants, bars, tea shops and sites to see.

At one point we met a truck driver who gave us a ton of information and showed us a driving route on a big format ringed binder map book. When he was done talking, he left the book. We told him he was forgetting his book and he said we could have it as it had detailed updated map info of the entire country. It was an expensive book and I knew it, so I told him not to give it away. He insisted and said he didn’t mind.

I still have that map book on my shelf and whenever I see it, I think of that trip and all those people we met.

Totally loved Germany after that.

If I ever run into that scenario … that would be a great reason to raise the Jolly Roger

Don’t know … I can’t afford internet credits in order to access a connection.

It sounds like you’ll fit right in … great to have you here … have fun!

I was making light of your question … partly to have a bit of fun … and partly to show that the community enjoys sharing these silly little bits of movie quotes that act like memes. The one I was using is from the movie “The Naked Gun” (the original film from 1988 with Leslie Nielson)

A lot of the meme communities enjoy old slapstick movie content as there is a lot of memeable content there … films like ‘The Naked Gun’ series, Hot Shots, any of the Mel Brooks films and Monty Python.

Don’t be afraid to test your boundaries, comment as you like but with an open mind and kind heart … people will let you know if you’ve said or implied anything negative or positive. Don’t be discouraged if you get no response either … it’s not a popularity contest. The longer you stay, the more you comment, the more you get to know people and the more they get to know you and eventually you become a regular part of the community.

Welcome to Lemmy and welcome to the fediverse.

Then tell them they’re part of the gang and to join everyone else as we go wedgie and noogie the next new guy

“I’m sure we can handle this situation maturely, just like the responsible adults that we are. Isn’t that right, Mr. Poopy Pants?”

Take advice from Detective Frank Drebin

“Like a blindman at an orgy, I was going to have to feel my way through”

The fact that we all casually talk about how big money is almost a requirement to get into, run, manage, and maintain politics … goes to show you how democratic the system is.

Like I implied, the problem isn’t the HOW to do it.

The problem is in giving any one person, government, corporation or company this amount of power and control.

And because it’s so powerful, no one who had it would want to give up control by making it anonymous or in objectively protecting privacy for the user.

Great! … the solution to our problems … let’s all trust edgemaster72

The problem is not the system or the idea of age verification

The problem is that no one on earth can be trusted with that level of monitoring, control and power.