I also really liked Vermont while I lived there, and everything that you mentioned are great features. That said, the state (and much of New England) is overwhelmingly white. I am white-passing, but my spouse is not, and they felt consistently othered while we lived there. Not in an aggressive or hateful way, but in a “strangers see me as a novelty” way that you tend to get in homogenous communities. Burlington is probably a bit more diverse than the relative middle of nowhere where we lived, so your mileage may vary.
Dragonfruit is delicious, but this depends heavily on where you get it. Most non-tropical markets get imported dragonfruit that was picked too early and shipped/stored over long periods, resulting a relatively bland taste and drier texture. Ripe, fresh dragonfruit is lovely. It’s in my top 5 fruits personally.
Why would you hurt me like this?
I played a Druid a few years back whose magical focus was narrowly on stone and earth. The idea was her culture (from which she had been exiled years prior for failing to fulfill some of her clerical responsibilities) considered the world to be a huge grave, and her role in said society was to interact with and advocate for the decomposed and petrified remains of the long dead. So she considered herself something of a necromancer, just for the dead that are so far gone as to become the landscape. 5e isn’t built to support this interpretation of the Druid class, but we managed it with some minor reflavoring and homebrewing. It was a fun concept but her beliefs and goals ended up becoming too at odds with the rest of the party, so I retired her to avoid friction.
A lot of folks thought he would push fascist policies, though? He was notable for his nativist and protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail. The audacity of it all is what got him all that free print and airtime.
By hour count this year:
Wow and I thought I had a lot. I salute you.
Boring boomer humor.
For real. Each sentence made me want to throw up in my mouth. This misogyny combined with wealth worship and zero-sum outlook on life is an unforgivable character flaw. What a vapid, worthless existence.
I’m surprised not to see more people mention From Software games. Going all the way back to demon’s souls they consistently teach you how to understand the tools at your disposal, the challenge that you currently face, and how to use the former to overcome the latter. I learned how to “read” opponents to find and exploit vulnerabilities while playing dark souls way back, and that general approach is consistently useful in all sorts of other games. There are lots of other translatable skills involved, of course, like timing and resource management.
Scientists have GOT to stop allowing religion-flavored nicknames for phenomena. It imports a bunch of inappropriate connotations and confuses the message. “God particle”, “demon particle”, etc. What is this clownshoes nonsense?
I find Sikhism interesting. My reading thereupon suggests that it has generally positive pro social values. There’s some gender stuff that I don’t like, but no major religion is free of that. Moreover, I can really get behind the dictate to carry a knife to defend the innocent.
I’m fairly positive that my drug use in early adulthood damaged my intelligence somewhat. I am also certain that it broadened my perspective and improved my ability to understand others. Good trade imo.
I’ve had a similar journey, and am consistently surprised at how common this path seems to be.
It does seem depressingly common for formerly disadvantaged people to abandon empathy once they gain a modicum of power. See: the divide and conquer strategy that has been effectively wielded against the working class for all of history.
As a GNC person myself, the worst bigotry I have experienced personally has come from cis gay people. What was said to you was not acceptable. Your identity is not contingent upon the side that you take in an argument. This woman knowingly chose violence, and that stain is on her. It means little, but this internet stranger sees you. We have to care for one another, especially when we disagree.
Human cognition/consciousness is not special. There have likely been many now-extinct intelligent species whose evolutionary niche did not encourage the indefinite expansion and subsequent habitat destruction that we are currently experiencing. Moreover, other intelligent species will likely evolve after we are extinct. There is also no reason to believe that consciousness is unique to biological creatures, although mechanical sapience will most likely look very different from ours.
I stopped drinking about six years ago. My university had a very “party” atmosphere, and I faced a lot of social pressure to drink during most outings. Being an oddball nerd, I drank for the first time alone in a basement so that I could understand how it felt before doing so in front of others. After some vaguely pleasant spinning about the room I ended up vomiting and had a rough hangover the next day. And that pretty much summed up my relationship with alcohol for the following decade. Have a mildly good to mediocre time, followed by regret. Even with just a small amount. Eventually I had a moment of clarity in my late twenties where I realized “this is not for me” and just stopped. I wish I had possessed the self awareness and bravery in my late teens to take the stand then.
Some further research suggests that you’re right. They’re not native to the area but I guess were introduced a long time ago. Thanks!