Monument

@Monument@lemmy.sdf.org

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Literally this community⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Honestly, all the childhood trauma has given me an incredible sense of humor. Practice makes perfect!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lämp⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m genuinely confused. Do furries who style themselves after dragons, lizards, and snakes not refer to themselves as scalies?

  Did I get taken by a meme like a decade ago and just decided that was canon?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Yes, this is what people did back then⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  First consensual experience. My usage of the word molested earlier downplays things a bit – we had full penetrative sex, but I was 6 years old. It’s something that occurred dozens of times. It’s not the only time I was sexually abused as a kid by someone older, but it’s the one I’ll mention.
  Not very much later than that very first experience, I had a rather thorough introduction to pornography. My parents split up, my mom moved far away, taking us with her. After she kicked her drug habit, she became a workaholic and put in 80-hour workweeks. Another kid at our apartment complex had a “cool mom” who figured that her preteen was going to get his hands on porn, so she had some available that I guess was okay by her. He then showed it to everyone - including my then 8-or 9-year-old self.

  Honestly - I think I did alright. We had several multi-hour long trysts, usually one to two a weekend for at least a month (probably more like 2 months) until she moved in/we got caught. I don’t know if I knew what I was doing, skill wise, but she did, and I’m able to have multiple orgasms/erections, so like if one pops off (and they did with way less control back then), it wasn’t a mood killer. Plus, I think I lead off that initial encounter by trying to eat her out. I’m sure we talked and found stuff that worked for her. But maybe not? I don’t know. She kept coming back and wanted more. I assumed that was satisfaction - although it could have been whatever her emotional damage was.

  A lot of it for both of us may have been the completely open embrace of each other without any kind of guile or awareness that we were, you know, being gigantic emotionally destructive idiots. As well as being fairly risky on contraception. Woof. Rhythm method most of the time. I’m sure she grew up to be a lovely person, but man, what a mess we could have made of our lives.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lämp⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  No, you’re good. I think I was reading too much into your comment/crotchity first thing in the morning.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Yes, this is what people did back then⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  It was weird times. I mean, great. But weird and great to my half-cooked, traumatized, and hormone-addled teenage brain.

  She was my sister’s best friend at the time and, well, physically she was like the girl who’d molested me as a child, which definitely had (and still has) an impact on my physical preferences.
  I don’t exactly know what her deal was, but I think it was that any male attention just short-circuited her. I recall her telling me she loved me after a few weekends of sneaking around, and after about a month, spinning a yarn as pretext to try to move in with us.

  It’s probably a good thing we got caught a day or so after she moved in. Stupid football game. It pushed some TV show back, and my mom/sisters stayed up late to watch it. My sister (her best friend) came downstairs to check in on her and caught us in bed.

  As for the how - I don’t know. I was an awkward gangly teenager, and she was honestly a pretty attractive girl. She had some self-confidence issues, I think.
  It was like the first day she’d come over for a sleepover. I had never met her - my sister befriended her when we were in foster care, so this was not unusual - and I was instantly into her. I have no idea if she picked up on that or not. We were watching movies (me, 2 of my sisters, and her). The couches were occupied, and so I had a pallet on the floor. So did she. Our feet were under the big couch, hidden by the little skirt that all couches had back then, heads pointing toward the TV. I thought I felt her foot touch mine (but it was probably wishful thinking). I edged my foot over, discovering the distance between us was way too far for her to have accidentally touched me, and sort of bonked her foot with mine while awkwardly exploring. I pulled back just slightly and she immediately pressed her foot against mine. Footsie lead some sneaky suggestive glances, then surreptitiously bridging our blankets together and doing our best to conceal our roving hands. At one point during a bathroom break everyone had left the room, she told me her intentions, and I was very okay with them. We made a plan - I was going to go to bed, and she was going to find me after everyone was asleep. (She was sleeping in a guest room that was conveniently located - my bedroom was in the basement.) And that was that.

  She used to page me with “143” (code for I love you - which I don’t think either of us could know what that actually meant) and I used to page her back with same. We were so dumb and teenager-y. It was fun, but unhealthy. I didn’t get enough positive attention, and this sort of reinforced a belief that I could only be of service to someone sexually. If I wasn’t serving someone sexually, I wasn’t of value emotionally - another formative belief that was maybe not the best and is still hard to shake.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lämp⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not sure how to respond here. Obviously it’s a reference to the leg lamp. That was never in question.

  I was responding to the alt text of the image that called it a furry rendition, saying it was a probably better akin to a scaly rendition.

  But if we’re going to try to out-pedantic each other here, I’d like to know if it’s common for lions or tigers to have non-retractable claws and a rearward facing first toe with a claw (which has been styled in the lamp above)?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lämp⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  That is fishnet tights — I meant that t-rex’s are scaly in general.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lämp⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Seems less furry and more scaly. Also. I love it. I want a t-Rex leg lamp.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Yes, this is what people did back then⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Am I a grown adult that wakes up in a foster care home and the child that was there previously is gone?
  Do I have to spend the rest of my life without an identity, or clinging to the “delusion” that I was this child that mysteriously disappeared?

  Am I a child with 40 years of life experience?
  Not long after, When I was 14, my first consensual sexual experience involved an 18-year-old. We got caught, and folks widely regard/regarded her as being inappropriate/in the wrong. Huh. First girlfriend, high school dances/romances. College. Jesus - every relationship basically forever.
  If I proceed down the same path, does that mean I’m the creep now?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Interesting way to deal with people who have had enough⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I dated a girl with a very Italian last name for a number of years. She said that ‘back in the day’ certain parts of her family were connected in our city. Laughed it off, because that was history. Her dad was never involved, and her grandpa was only a little involved, I guess, and… whatever. It just wasn’t a thing in their lives and hadn’t really been a thing in our city since like the 70’s.

  We took a trip to NYC, and after eating at this lovely hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant, she paid. After seeing the name on the CC, the whole vibe sort of changed. Staff got shy. A manager came over to offer us a big discount on our food, and free dessert.
  My GF understood it, I guess, and told him that we were from out of town and didn’t have any family in town. After a very brief pause, the manager said something like “Oooh. It must have been another table that complained about their food…” They still gave us free dessert for the mix-up (we were already going to order dessert - it’s not like we were pretending to be mini-mafiosos out there).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Front Brake Lights Could Drastically Diminish Road Accident Rates⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I feel that in my area the driving culture has become so toxic that there’s a better than average chance that indicating a lane change (which I always do) will lead to the vehicle in the lane you’re attempting to change into accelerating to prevent you from ‘getting in front of them.’
  It’s so frustrating (and dangerous!). It seems that a lot of folks feel entitled to the road, or the patch of road in front of their car fro as long as the eye can see, and are willing to behave irrationally regarding it.

  I feel that telegraphing that your vehicle is slowing down (for any purpose) will lead to overconfidence or even willful misunderstanding by other drivers. A careful slow-down will turn to panic as they try to take advantage of the situation. I also think that drivers will focus on the vehicles too much, and will not focus on things like pedestrians or perhaps why your car is slowing down, and wind up contributing to the problem.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The 5 stages of Charles Manson⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I love Lemmy.

  So. Honestly, I’m in over my head on a couple projects that I thought were going to be “easy enough.”

  I’m new to the entire “type” of project I’m building - ESP32’s with displays. The starter project is a ‘magic 8 ball.’ I have one of these already and figure the gyro/accelerometer can capture the shake/flip motion. The more complex one is intended to be backed by ESPHome and use a motion sensor/Bluetooth presence detection to deliver customized messages in addition to providing smart home control.

  In the course of trying to figure them out, it’s become apparent I’m going to have to learn/use LVGL for the graphics. I haven’t yet gotten to LVGL and I already am on the struggle bus.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Peak masculinity⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  And ears so big they can be used as handles. For reasons.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨MEGA PENGUIN⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I was planning to, but work has been hell today. I’ve barely had any time to shitpost.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Self-Driving Tesla Fails School Bus Test, Hitting Child-Size Dummies… Meanwhile, Robo-Taxis Hit the Road in 2 Weeks.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Ope, now I regret deleting my edited explanation! That is an excellent response to my accidental comment.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Self-Driving Tesla Fails School Bus Test, Hitting Child-Size Dummies… Meanwhile, Robo-Taxis Hit the Road in 2 Weeks.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  My immediate thought was “That’s not all they’re going to be hitting…”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The 5 stages of Charles Manson⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’d be fine with it, but my wife barely likes men. There’s no way I could convince her to find me a gaming buddy.

  (I kid! I’d actually rather she find someone that knows C++.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  For the U.S., the decisive blow came with the Citizens United ruling, although it’s not unreasonable to suggest the refusal to punish Nixon during watergate signaled that the rule of law was merely a suggestion. That kicked off a whole cascade of political and legal maneuvering to get both the legislative and societal landscape into such a contortion that it would willingly hand away the entire nation to vulture-capitalists.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Because they don’t believe in choice, freedom, or even democracy. They merely support the ideal and facilitate the illusion.

  Anything that empowers voters to either dilute the two-party hegemony (where both parties are accountable to the same pool of donors) or elect party members that haven’t been carefully vetted by insiders is a threat to entrenched power structures. Adding roadblocks now ensures that transitions to better systems are made impossible via peaceful and lawful means.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Rare insults dropped⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I wonder how Jill is doing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Rare insults dropped⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I had a threesome with an HR lady! Her hair is purple and she has a polyamory infinity symbol wrapped by bands around her wrist in the colors of the bisexual flag.
  She’s a cool lady. Great friend and hates being a tool for the man. She’s cool people’s version of Ron Swanson.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Unfair is what it is⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Not only do I have an increased range of motion, but I (very recently learned) that an old injury is causing spinal stenosis – my spinal canal is narrowing due to bone overgrowth on my vertebrae. (Car accident. I was rear ended.)

  About 20 years ago a chiropractor popped my neck by twisting it, and it so freaked him out that he leapt back from the table and did the heebie jeebie dance.
  He told me to never let a chiropractor pop my neck by twisting it ever again.
  Reasonably certain I could kill myself showing off doing yoga, like in that Dead Like Me episode.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump would cut CISA budget by $491M amid ‘censorship’ claim⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I mean, everyone is already fucked, and that’s what keeps everyone else in check.

  Russia has made great efforts to hack municipal systems all over the world, and may actually have some control over Microsoft systems, owing to that credential hack last year that Microsoft still hasn’t confirmed is contained. (Recent Russian hacking campaigns are using malicious signed MSI files, so my bet is no…)

  China has all that communication equipment everywhere, with rumors swirling that it’s intentionally compromised. There’s also Tuya, a massive IOT company that produces its own products and also white label products. And there’s all the EV power inverters that can be hacked and used as a botnet to destroy electrical grids. Not that they need to, because apparently they can shut down the U.S. power grid remotely. And who knows what they’ve managed to do with the U.S.’s backdoor access into telecom systems.

  The U.S. has its own devices, hacking, and infiltration efforts, although as a U.S. citizen, my awareness of them is decreased due to U.S. media.

  But my core point is that there’s basically a digital Cold War happening. And the U.S. is all but surrendering, making successful surveillance, hacking, and sabotage campaigns more likely.
  If a situation goes hot at the same time that large parts of U.S. see poisonings or health issues en masse due to tampering with water supply chemical or filtration systems through the water supply, possible destruction of drinking water systems, the explosion of natural gas lines as C&C systems over pressurize domestic lines, followed by a prolonged grid-wide electrical outage, the U.S. will have basically no ability to do anything but focus on domestic issues.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Second US Navy jet is lost at sea from Truman aircraft carrier⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  And that idiot thinks scary is a bunch of ships off your shore like it’s WWII, and not unseen death from above by an enemy you cannot attack or anticipate, all brought to you by a partnership of your neighbor countries.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3081: PhD Timeline⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I went looking for the alt text because, well, I love the Easter-egg nature of the alt text he provides. Got chills as soon as I realized what he’d done.

  So much respect for him.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨i get most of my news something like that⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I found out from the ‘dies of cringe’ meme, then shared that on to my wife and her best friend, telling them that was how I found out - and that’s how they found out.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Synology could bring “certified drive” requirements to more NAS devices⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh, snap, bringing me the magic I need, but didn’t know to look for.

  I’ve been refusing to update because of video station. Looks like I’m saving your comment for later.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wikipedia is giving AI developers its data to fend off bot scrapers⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  No, because there isn’t a single IP range or user agent, and many developers are going to lengths to defeat anti-scraping measures, which include user agent spoofing as well as vpns and the like to mask the source of the traffic.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I hate reachability of smartphones⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  All of the red ‘notification’ dots on my apps give off a nice warm glow that makes the screen feel homey.

  Silliness aside, it’s an act of self care to only do what you have the desire and capacity to do. Don’t make yourself unhappy for an expectation that you get to set.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Car safety experts at NHTSA, which regulates Tesla, axed by DOGE⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They say regulations are written in blood.

  Elaine Chao is a conservative government official who is famous for not enforcing safety rules or following up on safety complaints and may have violated ethics laws while Secretary of Transportation under Trump’s first regime. While in that role, she rubber stamped a sketchy driver control system implemented by Tesla that later helped kill her own sister (in addition to drunk driving).

  Can the lightning bolt of consequences strike twice?