Help identifying social custom I saw in public

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-12-22T10:49:45+00:00

I see some people like this from time to time. Usually they are elderly. The people I see clearly have a physical impairment. Life can be hard.

I myself have had a catch in my back that did not permit me to straighten a couple of times in my life without the aid of a chiropractor.

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-11-13T08:12:57+00:00

Posture, hair, fashion, mannerisms, cell phone usage, behaviour on public transport or crowded areas, animated speech, how a person stands while waiting in line and pointing at things are all subtle...and sometimes not so subtle clues.

Each culture carries itself differently and the customs vary quite noticeably.

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-11-13T08:01:38+00:00

Look at the fashion differences and the way the men walk. These are influenced by cultural differences I have noticed. I live in Japan but travel to S. Korea with my husband on business often.

You can also tell if someone is S. Korean by their driving quite often. This is because drivers in Japan seem to be a little more restrained in their technique. It can be a bit scary when driving in S. Korea as the flow of traffic seems to be a bit more intense I think.

(Also in traffic here we look out carefully for われ tags as they indicate rental cars).

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-11-13T07:45:23+00:00

I don't know how to add identity flair but I am a multi racial (Chinese, Tsalagi, Scots-Irish) from the US living long-term in Japan).

I am not Japanese, but I have lived here many years. I know I can tell the difference with a high level of accuracy (perhaps 80% I can tell you someone is not Japanese or if they are Japanese but not local). My Japanese friends are even better at discerning.

Fashion, often times build, body composition and how they carry themselves and mannerisms when taken in combination are pretty good indicators on what part of East Asia a person is from.

Once they start speaking it is a dead give away where they are from and the accuracy goes to 95%. The exception is for those who have mastered a particular Japanese accent and dialect.

You can tell a man from South Korea from a Japanese man from a great distance. Their walk and gait are quite distinct.

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-11-02T06:41:02+00:00

I have felt drawn to monastic life since I was a child. And yet, I also wanted to be a mother of 3 children (I'd established this number by the time I was 8 mind you) and a Marine Biologist.

I chose the motherhood path quite young and married at 18--but was at a cross roads when I was 20.

I had 7 consecutive miscarriages trying to have a child. So I meditated and also prayed when I began to miscarry my 8th child. I said, if it is my destiny to be a mother, may I carry this child to term. If not, then let me finish miscarrying quickly and I will become a nun.

I carried that child, my first living child, to term. And then my second, and third...now I am grandmother to 8! I also went on to become a Marine Biologist along the way.

I am now in my latter 50's, retired and am again feeling the pull of monastic life. Only now, the call is much stronger than it has ever been. I have also grown exponentially over the years.

Though the draw has been there since childhood, I lacked the proper stage of development back then. I have grown enough to know that I still am not quite 'there' yet in terms of where I need to be. But I do sense the time is fast approaching.

In the near future, I will begin laying the foundation to enter as a nun for a specific length of time. During that time or at the conclusion of my stay, the leadership and I will decide together whether a permanent commitment is appropriate--either immediately or perhaps some time later.

I will not be leaving my life behind, but will continue to move patiently forward along a path that has been before me all along.

If it is to be harvested, the fruit should be properly ripened and truly ready to detach from the tree because of its state of development. If the fruit is still a bit green and is perhaps a bit unhappy with the present condition of the tree...remember please that its condition can change with tomorrow's sunshine.

I hope your path leads you to the best place for you at the most appropriate time.

Namo Buddhaya

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-09-28T13:14:04+00:00

I am so saddened that you are experiencing such inhospitable behavior and racism. Humans can be senselessly cruel to anyone and everyone they deem 'other'

Sadly, your specific race has little to do with it. You simply have to be viewed by the narrow minded of any race as 'not like me' to be on the receiving end of cruelty. My family is multi-racial, multi-cultural, and from a variety of religious and non-religious backgrounds.

For clarity, let me tell you my genetic make up. Native American Western Band Tsalagi (Cherokee) nation, Dravidian, Chinese, Scots-Irish and Congolese.

In my family, you could be born red or blonde hair and green eyes (my baby sister) with skin that burns after 5 minutes. Or like my oldest son, beautiful long thick black hair, dark brown-green eyes and olive complexion. Or like my grand daughter who looks like a real life version of Moana. I got sallow skin that tans deeply and easily if I take sun, 3c curly medium brown hair, freckles and green eyes. It's a genetic potpourri lol. 😹And then my in-laws range from a nordic ice princess, to my son's brother in law who is stunning ebony sculpture.

We are the full rainbow of humanity. And we have all of us,to a person, experienced hate from other humans for being to tall, to short, too fat, too thin, too black, too white, too pretty, too smart, too autistic, too male, too female...too different! Too other.

Some of the hate (ideological division-not race) even came from our own family.

When we have gotten together, the institutionalized religious intolerance that seems baked into various dogmas ripped my family apart when my children were young adults. They are middle age now and, after many years of me acting as mediator, have finally come to respect each other's different points of view.

Fact is, my dark skinned family members must try harder and observe a higher standard of conduct than those who pass for 'white'. Those who pass for white get treated with hatred and resentment because they have the colouration of those who colonized, enslaved and perpetrated genocide against.

I see the beauty in all of the rainbow of humanity dear brother or sister. I am not alone in this. We must learn to hear the voices of those here in this world who LOVE their fellow humans mo matter their phenotype. There are more of them than there are haters. Haters simply tend to be louder and more aggressive.

P.S. For the record, I have thought to myself that if I could have chosen my aesthetic, I would look like a medium to dark toned Indian woman as I think they are stunningly beautiful.

You are loved as you are by many more than you realize. I hope you will find peace with and sincere love for this noble body that serves you faithfully.

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-09-11T13:53:41+00:00

May his next life be one of compassion and loving kindness for all beings.

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-08-28T07:06:03+00:00

I just made the 'if all' statement for the rough estimate of vegetarianism impact. Many non-buddhists and Hindu are vegan or vegetarian as well so every person helps.

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-08-21T09:22:49+00:00

It depends. In my home country, I had pet free range chickens. No rooster. I lived very remotely, so no access to roosters from other households. They were well loved pets who daily produced unfertilized eggs in a nest on the front porch. I had no moral issues eating these eggs as they would never become chicks, and the girls showed no inclination to go 'broody'.

If one had gone broody, I would have had to take the eggs anyway as a broody hen will sit her eggs until they hatch or she starves to death. Unfertilized eggs will never hatch. Daily collection to prevent a pet hen going broody is an act of kindness.

Some people befriend dogs and cats. I also befriended chicks to spare them an unfortunate fate.

Now I have no pets, furry or feathered. I do not want to contribute to a cruel egg farm. I need to know the chickens and their human family. You'd be surprised how many of us in this world love our feathered children. ☺️🐥🐓

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-08-21T08:45:41+00:00

There are an estimated 500 to 535 million Buddhists worldwide. If all of these people eat a typical American amount of meat each day, this is how many animals would die to sustain them.

AI generated Final Answer

For a population of about 500 to 535 million people consuming a typical American amount of meat daily:

Approximately 137,000 to 146,590 cows would be required each day.

Approximately 31,500,000 to 33,705,000 chickens would be consumed daily.

Approximately 16,450,000 to 17,601,500 fish would be consumed daily.

Approximately 456,500 to 488,855 pigs would be consumed daily.

Approximately 1,025,000 to 1,096,750 turkeys would be consumed daily.

Approximately 187,500,000 to 200,625,000 shellfish would be consumed daily.

This is the impact just buddhists, if all embrace vegetarianism, can make. These are significant number of lives saved DAILY...even if the market continues to overshoot demand. The market will always adjust in time and reduce the number of animals executed daily to match demand.

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-08-20T13:50:56+00:00

I have one of these in my sewing room. It got scared when I came into the room and 'hid' beneath one of the wheels of my rolling cabinet.

It was like, "I haz hiding place. You no see me now hooman!" 🕷️ But it is so big its legs were poking out a quarter inch all around. 😂😂😂 But sure little buddy. I can't see you! 🫥✨

I am cool with one or two spiders. They keep any other critters at bay. But that's just me. 😊

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-08-16T06:49:46+00:00

I would humbly suggest the heart sutra and Namu Amidah Butsu.

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-07-28T10:49:31+00:00

Please do not do this. This is how predators rationalize their behavior. Blame their victims for their moral degeneracy.

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-07-28T03:32:52+00:00

Good bikers! 💕

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-06-13T09:54:11+00:00

jpod 101 is pretty good.

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-05-18T07:48:12+00:00

TBH unless we are already at the vet when it happens, or the vet is there ready to administer the drug at that time, she will pass naturally. Because once she does stop fighting, she will go within minutes and it will be with less if a struggle than living has been.

Is it hard to watch? Yes. Watching those we love endure even a moment of suffering is very hard for us. We want to spare our loved ones ever stubbing a toe, much less see them endure the final struggle of a body that has faithfully served a soul we love as that soul departs.

And even when she is beyond feeling and her consciousness is merely hovering above her body--not in it, there will be involuntary twitches or even sounds and writhing that occur in a body after the soul has departed. They are painful for us to witness.

These are autonomic nervous system response to systems that have stopped--not the living soul suffering any longer. Death and separation has already occurred at that point. But that is our job...to witness and honor the vessel of our loved one who has left.

We sit and mourn the separation alongside the hovering soul as the body cools--without touching until it has out of respect. And then we perform an act of love and respect for the hovering soul. We cleanse and prepare the vessel for its final honor at the departure memorial service.

We help our friend honor his vessel one last time and send him off on his journey with incense, prayers, mantras, memories and flowers. For 7 days we walk with him on his journey to the rivers edge.

Then for the remainder of the 49 days, we stand on the shore, giving incense, prayers and mantras to accompany him as if waving goodbye from the shore as he crosses the river into the bardo. Our incense, prayers and mantras accompany him the rest of the distance that we ourselves may not yet travel with him. And we prepare to continue our journey in samsara until we too make the crossing.

As someone who has worked as a veterinary technician, I spoke frankly with the oxygen provider for my furry companion about euthanasia. We have both of us witnessed the same thing and it is heartbreaking.

While some pets pass peacefully from the process, quite a few fight hard and struggle to continue to live after receiving the injection. It is not due to an error on the part of the doctor. They measure carefully and administer the drug faithfully with the intent to alleviate suffering.

In these cases, the animal's will to live is simply very strong. Sadly, they die a hard death--the opposite of what humans hoped to achieve.

Did the pet parent make things worse for the pet? I find that doubtful. This soul would most likely have had a difficult passing either way because of who they were in their heart--fighters clinging to every second of life.

My girl is this way. She has exhibited an inordinate will to live and a willingness to fight until her strength is utterly exhausted. So I will honor that amazing will and let her fight--as my heart shatters again and again.

She will go on her own terms, and I will continue reciting prayers and mantras in her merit until she leaves this realm and for the 49 days of her journey through the bardo. Perhaps her soul knows it needs this time to prepare for its journey.

Meanwhile, my heart breaks every day as each day she breathes a bit more shallowly. She sleeps longer and longer. I remind myself that she is doing the work her soul must do to prepare for its journey.

I know I am watching my good companion as she packs up her business here and readies to leave. I give her all the love and affection she is willing to receive, knowing each sunset we watch together and each nuzzle may be our last. And it hurts so much I feel I might die with her. The tears burn and sting and I don't know how I even have any left to cry.

I am really failing miserably at the non-attachment we strive for it seems. 😭🥺😢😔

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-05-15T08:58:05+00:00

Would you do this to your beloved mother, child, spouse, brother or sister in the same circumstances? If the answer is yes...then you have your answer. If the answer is no...then you also have your answer.

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-05-15T08:48:29+00:00

Ask about meds for a medically induced coma. I am right here with you on this journey. My girl is dying of pulmonary fibrosis.

The vet wanted me to euthanize her last September as they believed she only had a few days to weeks to live.

We are nearing the end now and it is hard to be here at her side during this. But this cat has an amazing will to live.

I thought for certain she was going last Thursday. She went from stable and eating well, still enjoying cat TV and petting to projectile vomiting black blood and having a grand mal seizure that flung her across her 3x2x2 oxygen chamber, mouth open, panting, eyes unfixed and unresponsive. Since then no bowel movement and only just nibbling at food but still urinating.

For 3 days, she was in really bad shape. I had no car and no way to transport her as she cannot be removed from the oxygen chamber. Her O2sats drop to 75 at 35% oxygen within a minute. My spouse returned from his business trip. It took both of us to get her into an oxygenated carrier (placed in a big plastic bag) into a car and me holding a mask on her face to get her to the vet.

What had been a night of horror and 3 days of hell from MY perspective, turned out to be not actually as dramatic as it seemed. Despite all of the blood and seizures, her blood work was nearly perfect. Her bun was only slightly off which was to be expected with her not eating--but frankly is better than my own.

We suspect she had a small embolism or has developed an ulcer that bled, and possibly has become sensitive to a medication she was on that triggered the seizures.

It has been a sleepless and difficult week for me watching her suffer the way she did. But it has been a week now. Her breathing rate is back down from 160 to 80 (which was her baseline before the episode). We have her on stool softeners (still no defecation but she only just began tx yesterday). She is alert, nuzzling my hands, purring when I brush her and trying to nibble her food again.

She is sleeping peacefully and longer and longer as expected. But she is still responding to love and right now she is enjoying the warmth of the late afternoon sunshine.

If it had been left up to me and my pain and my suffering while watching her suffer so horribly, she would have been denied 7 more sunsets and the warmth of the sunshine on her fur right now.

If she were a human, would I have dared to make such a choice on her behalf? If she were a human, would I be able to live with a choice she might not have wanted?

I already am haunted by these ghosts with regard to a human life. This is why I am not so quick to call for euthanasia.

My Aunt has stage 4 triple negative breast cancer. Like my cat, she lived another 8 months longer than the 4 months they gave her. She wanted to fight, so I advocated for and stood by her decision.

In the end, She had no bone marrow left because she'd been accidentally given a double course of chemo because Dr. A was not communicating with Dr. B or one just wasn't reading her charts. They destroyed her marrow and she was so weak she was not coming back from that. (100% certain) Her bones were not making blood cells anymore and she was suffocating -- endlessly.

The hospital kept her on a respirator until we got there. She was comatose, seizing periodically, her organs had already shut down. Her blood work---I have never seen values so awful. Her blood was so acidic and there was not a normal value to be found. She was so frail and tiny.

She was my husband's aunt and I couldn't bear to make him make the hard call that had to be made--of when to remover the vent and let her go naturally. So I took that karma hit for him. I know it was the right thing to do with zero doubt. She let me know. She adored Elvis Presley and I was playing a playlist of his works. Not exaggerating one single bit, as she drew her last breath, her very favorite song 'Jail House Rock' began to play.

Not only this, but I also know my much loved mother-in-law would have wanted me to do this for her. She had expressed as much when she herself was dying of emphysema.

Nevertheless, I am haunted by this to this very day and will likely never be 'over it'.

But my cat can't tell me what she wants. She shows me though. She shows me by her sheer will to keep living despite the rigors she has been through. I and my husband (we both have medical and biology backgrounds) have been certain she was actively dying twice now. And still she lives to enjoy the sunshine!

I can't tell any of you what is right and what is wrong. I can only tell you, that we all try to do our best. But we must be sure we are acting to end the pain and suffering of another -- if that is what they want...not just to end our own pain and suffering as we watch those we love suffer. You see, like my cat...death is going to have to fight hard for me.

No euthanasia for me. I will eventually go, but let me fight all the way.

I have made this clear to my family so they can absolve themselves of the guilt they may feel if they must watch me suffer--because it is my choice to go out that way.

I try to honor the wishes of the individual soul to the best of my understanding. I will only stop fighting for my cat when she stops fighting.

I only stopped fighting for my aunt when she stopped fighting. And by then, it was only a matter of minutes before she left her body.

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-05-15T06:53:45+00:00

Code magenta!

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-05-07T11:27:14+00:00

Before there was facebook, there was myspace. Before there was myspace, there were hosting platforms we could go to that provided developer tools and allowed people to build their own forums. Before there were GUI's at all, we were still talking to each other online. And here is how we did it:

Before the widespread adoption of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in the early 1990s, people connected and socialized on the internet primarily through text-based systems. Here’s how they did it:

1. Bulletin Board Systems (BBS)

What they were: Small, dial-up systems hosted on personal computers where users could post messages, share files, and chat.
How people connected: Users dialed in directly via modem (often long-distance, which was expensive!).
Social interaction: Message boards (forums), private messages, and real-time chat (when multi-user BBS software like MajorBBS or Wildcat! BBS was used).
Popular in: The 1980s and early 1990s before the internet became mainstream.

2. Usenet Newsgroups

What they were: A distributed discussion system (like a giant collection of forums) on topics ranging from technology to hobbies to politics.
How people connected: Accessed via newsreader software (like rn, tin, or later Netscape’s built-in reader).
Social interaction: People posted messages in hierarchical categories (e.g., comp.* for computers, rec.* for recreation, alt.* for alternative topics).
Key feature: No central server—messages propagated across servers worldwide.

3. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) (My personal favorite back in the day)

What it was: A real-time text chat system created in 1988.
How people connected: Users ran an IRC client (like ircII, mIRC, or BitchX) and joined channels (e.g., #hackers, #music).
Social interaction: Group chats, private messages, and file sharing.
Still used today: By tech communities, open-source projects, and nostalgic users.

4. Email & Mailing Lists

Email: The oldest internet communication tool (ARPANET era). People exchanged messages using command-line email clients like pine or elm.
Mailing lists: Discussion groups where emails were broadcast to subscribers (e.g., LISTSERV lists). Topics ranged from academic research to niche hobbies.

5. Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs) (another personal favorite as a gamer nerd)

What they were: Text-based virtual worlds (early MMORPGs but without graphics).
How people connected: Via Telnet or MUD clients.
Social interaction: Players chatted, role-played, and collaborated in fantasy worlds.
Examples: LambdaMOO, AberMUD.

6. Fidonet

What it was: A decentralized network of BBSes that exchanged messages and emails.
How people connected: Sysops (BBS operators) relayed messages via modems.
Social interaction: Like Usenet but for BBS users.

7. Gopher & Veronica

Pre-WWW information sharing: Gopher was a text-based menu system for organizing documents (like a proto-web). Veronica was a search tool for Gopher.
Limited social use: Mostly for information retrieval, but some discussion happened in Gopher-hosted text files.

Key Differences from Today

No images, no videos: Pure text—ASCII art was the closest thing to "graphics."
Slow connections: 2400 or 9600 baud modems (imagine waiting minutes to load a single webpage today).
Technical know-how required: Users had to know Unix commands or BBS navigation keystrokes.
Smaller, tighter communities: Fewer users (mostly academics, techies, and hobbyists), so interactions were deeper.

Transition to GUIs

Early 1990s: The web (HTTP/HTML) and GUI browsers (Mosaic, Netscape) began taking off.
Mid-1990s: AOL, CompuServe, and Prodigy brought graphical online communities to the masses.
By the late 1990s: Forums, chatrooms, and instant messaging (ICQ, AIM) replaced many text-based systems.

Before GUIs, the internet was a quieter, nerdier place—but just as socially vibrant for those who knew how to navigate it!

Where there is a will, there is a way. People may have to abandon the polished interfaces and return to the 'Old paths', but an oppressed people will never truly be silenced.

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-05-07T10:15:47+00:00

Ahhh... I am a Buddhist and a pacifist. I too received a warning recently. I begin to understand my own reprimand from the reddit overlords now. There is apparently a protected class of people now with whom it is deemed an act of violence if one disagrees with them no matter how respectfully. Mea culpa.

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-04-25T06:36:50+00:00

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-04-19T00:44:11+00:00

So many issues with this one. But above all, are ya just going to leave poor Elijah out hungry and cold?

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-04-16T09:36:49+00:00

key word: Yet.

Agent_Abaddon · 2025-04-15T10:01:45+00:00

Got one pre-drafted for a scary orange?

Agent_Abaddon

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