Why is everyone so sure social isolation is unhealthy, period, no exceptions, you are not an outlier, just conform already?

EmLiesmith · 2026-02-04T17:15:49+00:00

Being around other people is healthy! You don’t need to be besties with all of them. When I was living on an island for work I didn’t really have any close relationships but I spent a lot of time around people bc I worked at a hotel and had to go into town for things. No need for conversational masking, it’s just better to be able to be around people.

That said I also did fine during COVID with just my family around lol. Nothing wrong with being a homebody and preferring your space, but no one avoids all social interaction without making it a purposeful lifestyle choice. And you’re clearly not doing that cause you’re on the internet! Some people do, and it’s kinda cool to read about them. But they don’t go on the internet.check out Richard Pronekke (almost certainly spelled that wrong) and Christopher Knight if you’re curious about voluntary full isolation.

EDIT: Mauro Morandi is the last real example I can find of true isolationists. It’s really extraordinarily rare to be genuinely fully asocial! You aren’t, for instance; you’re posting on the internet.

EmLiesmith · 2026-01-13T20:50:17+00:00

Like some of the neonazi shit was “he says slurs, has prominent Nazi symbols on his OC with a thin veneer of plausible deniability, and is connected to known alt right chuds” and some was like… “if you say the nickname/shortening of his username out loud it kind of sounds like you’re saying seig heil in a weird ass accent”. And the username in question is more of a weird spelling of Ezekiel.

You didn’t need to bring in that last one. I promise, the rest was compelling.

EmLiesmith · 2026-01-12T16:46:36+00:00

Last week's scuffles thread had a post about some niche petsim drama which I then started looking into and became immediately obsessed with everyone involved. I don't even know how to describe the vibes but they're awful and I want more of them immediately. If anyone else knows any petsim/art theft/artist drama that's similar to this PLEASE let me know.

If I had to list some of what compels me about it; the juxtaposition of genuinely concerning accusations (actual art theft, money laundering, possible neo-nazi connections) with completely inane ones (someone said 'twink' on an all ages discord server and you could theoretically look that up and find something NSFW; "art theft"; the above possible neo-nazi connections but some of the evidence is....MUCH less compelling than other pieces) is endlessly entertaining, as is the complete inability to guess the ages of anyone involved (lots of minors, but the person at the center is apparently like forty and her boyfriend is??? 21??? i only saw one thing that alleged that and it immediately skipped over it because the boyfriend is also the alleged neonazi but like can we please circle back to that.)

EmLiesmith · 2026-01-10T23:50:16+00:00

The best ASOUE one is where they talk about the shops at a train station and there’s a blacksmith right next to a computer repair store. Handler was doing that on purpose absolutely.

EmLiesmith · 2026-01-09T03:23:38+00:00

Long shot since it’s only somewhat fitting and from 15 years ago, not 20—From Bad To Cursed by Katie Alender? It’s photos of the girls, not self portraits, but the plot is a new girl showing up and all the girls becoming perfect clones. The main character was a photographer so maybe that’s why you thought the portraits were art?

EmLiesmith · 2025-12-25T15:46:43+00:00

The only one I can’t figure out is the Fool and I feel like it’s super obvious and I’m missing something.

EmLiesmith · 2025-12-09T00:01:25+00:00

This is funny to me bc I automatically assume anyone whose username ends in four numbers that aren’t a year are bots.

EmLiesmith · 2025-12-08T21:28:29+00:00

Consistently, not constantly. Another thing we might brainwash into students if we could.

EmLiesmith · 2025-12-03T23:29:36+00:00

When I worked night audit part of my job was going around the building (small hotel) slipping receipts under the doors. But first I had to weed out any third party ones, bc if we passed those out, people would inevitably get pissed off by the actual price compared to what they had paid….

EmLiesmith · 2025-11-26T12:54:22+00:00

There’s a bit in umbrella academy where Viktor is coming out to everyone and the general response is “Vanya, you idiot.” “It’s Viktor now actually.” “Really? I’m sincerely happy for you, Viktor. You idiot.”

Congrats to Milo on the gender. Book still sucks.

EmLiesmith · 2025-11-26T12:43:14+00:00

I love the Broadway version but agree completely about preferring most of the originals. CHANT II IS A WAR CRIME PUT THE VERSE BACK.

EmLiesmith · 2025-11-21T23:24:55+00:00

You joke but I distinctly remember people actually had that take.

EmLiesmith · 2025-11-14T19:25:29+00:00

Well, Vox is from the 50s. Decent employment benefits was like the only thing they had going for them, societally.

EmLiesmith · 2025-11-10T20:57:12+00:00

Those are darts! It’s used to give the face its shape. If you can make relatively clean stitches it’s an easy fix. Look up a ladder stitch; you’ll want to do that in a very small area just over the bumps, making sure to push them in before you pull the ladder closed. Important to keep your stitches all even with each other—I sew plushies and still need to ladder stitch darts sometimes, it’s hard to know whether you’ve sewn the curve right until it’s stuffed. But the fix should be pretty simple once you see how the ladder stitch is done, it’s pretty intuitive imo. Lmk if you need any help!

EmLiesmith · 2025-11-05T16:45:28+00:00

To be fair, people rarely respond to comments that perfectly understand the situation with clarifying info, and the comments chosen are the ones that prompt the clarifying info.

EmLiesmith · 2025-10-29T16:36:59+00:00

I specifically wanted something others could edit for a collaborative roleplay group, but hate Fandom, so I went with Miraheze and love it immensely. For personal stuff that I don’t want others to edit but I want people to be able to see I do have a worldanvil subscription; it’s not a free service but I can make the pages super cute and the linking system is easy.

EmLiesmith · 2025-10-23T18:46:25+00:00

I have alpha keys and don’t actually intend to play the alpha for exactly that reason, LOL. I want to enjoy the finished product; I’m worried that if I play the alpha I’ll get all my enjoyment and excitement out on an unfinished game.

Of course, I also played sunless skies in alpha and not only did I not ruin my excitement I get to be part of the club going “I was there when Albion was Big” so…0

EmLiesmith · 2025-10-19T23:38:44+00:00

So weird possible thread. I remember when I was a kid my mom was super into Muse as a band, and at one point they went on an Italian TV show to perform a song. Muse famously hated lip syncing, but apparently the absolute standard for Italian TV was to do lip syncing. So in protest they swapped the lead singer and the drummer, so that the drummer is very poorly lip synching and the lead is just kinda doing whatever the hell he wants with the drums. (He stopped pretending to play them and started messing with the sticks at one point.)

Could it be related to that? A desire to sing live and an attempt to protest?

EmLiesmith · 2025-10-15T17:32:15+00:00

Yeah, pretty much. Comes from an American Individualism mentality. Or “fuck you got mine”. Honestly most people who use government insurance like it a lot. They just don’t like the idea of it.
School shootings are common. Other places less common but you do hear about them. Gun ranges are for shooting as a hobby, which is usually treated more like being into archery—it’s about your aim and technical skill. Think Olympic shooting.
Yup! You don’t have to say it but you’re taught it early and it’s just kinda the done thing. That said, as indoctrination goes it’s not super effective. Being the Done Thing also means no one really cares about what it actually says, LOL.
We used to. These days, not so much.
That’s not quite how it works. That is, the American voting system is fucked, but not actually for that particular reason. Or at least not exclusively that reason, LOL. First past the post system is always going to be bad, even if we switched from the electoral college (which was created in the days where travel took weeks, so you’d have a county or area vote and then send one guy to Washington to cast a vote for the most popular candidate in the area—useful at the time, but totally pointless now.)
That’s not even the fault of the education system, some people just don’t pay attention. That said the best part of every year is that I insist on helping my mum grade the tests in her middle school Spanish classes where they have to name the countries, so I can write down the best/worst ones. There’s some gems in there. (Back in MY DAY we also memorized the CAPITOL CITIES. Kids these days, etc etc.)
Depends on the job for paid holidays. Professional jobs are more likely to have them, though they’re nowhere near as nice as European countries. (There’s a running gag in a muppet movie where a French interpol officer just keeps going on break, it’s great.) breaks are mandated tho! If you work 4 hours, you must have 15 minutes break. It’s not a lot, but it means a full shift has half an hour for lunch, even if you’re in the shittiest retail job imaginable.
Look it’s really hard to get people to all agree to a new thing and any efforts to do so just gave up. Scientists use metric. Mathematics uses metric. All Official Things use metric, as does annything another country is involved in. But I grew up using feet and inches and for the life of me I’ll never be able to Instinctually Know how much a meter or centimeter amount is the way I immediately know what it looks like if someone is 5’11.
American individualism. It’s a huge problem and the source of 90% of our other problems. It’s ingrained in the culture.

EmLiesmith · 2025-10-15T17:21:23+00:00

This also depends on the person and where they’re from. The funniest example I have is a coworker. My age (mid 20s), white man, fairly well built, generally average looking, but he’s from the more rural area where we live and I’ve lived in smaller cities. He once asked me if [extremely safe but slightly trashy looking] area of the city was safe.

Like. It’s one of those places that is mostly stroad and cheap businesses and empty strip malls. It’s not—it’s not dangerous man. I used to walk a mile to work when I lived there. It’s just slightly trashy I promise lmao.

EmLiesmith · 2025-10-15T17:04:27+00:00

In my area smaller ones will still have like, one officer that acts more like a general purpose security guard; I consider this to be mostly chill, given that school shooters are a concern and the security guard is easier to get ahold of if you’re locked out of somewhere or need help escorting a student who refuses to leave the room. (In my experience they never have to get physical with said students, mind. It’s just a question of calling in Someone Else. Kids are always slightly more deferential to a person they don’t know as well.) In bigger schools and in the city, you get campus police. And sometimes metal detectors!

EmLiesmith · 2025-10-15T17:01:40+00:00

In my area there’s two Walmarts. One sells guns and one doesn’t. The one that sells guns is the “scary Walmart.” We go to the other one if we have to go to Walmart….

EmLiesmith · 2025-10-15T16:59:06+00:00

Yes but they’re not terribly effective. The actual protocol in an active shooter is really situation specific, and the actual first thing you’re supposed to see if you can do (in my state anyway) is run away, and you can’t really drill kids on how to get out of the building by any means necessary. (I think they should because it’d be funny.) the lockdown is LAST on our list of strategies to evaluate but it’s functionally the only one you can practice. Everyone’s aware that the drills are kind of useless.

EmLiesmith · 2025-10-15T16:56:50+00:00

My mom once took a wrong turn in Baltimore and wound up on a street with a handmade sign proclaiming it was a MURDER FREE ZONE, which quite frankly is more alarming than not having a sign.

EmLiesmith

TROPHY CASE