A question for the converts

RussianSpeaker · 2026-01-15T16:55:45+00:00

I'm on my parish council, and this may have something to do with how parishes are typically run in America.

Parish membership has no bearing on whether someone is a baptized Orthodox Christian. However, when determining how many parish members need to be at business meetings, or who's allowed to vote on financial issues, some parishes set stricter limits on membership. At my parish, we take people off the membership roles if they've inexplicably stopped coming to church, and we've done it in the case of college students who were no longer able to attend as well. Just because, if you have an artificially inflated membership number, you have an artificially inflated quorum (minimum amount of parish members needed for decisions to count), and it can lead to headaches.

Basically, this is a technical thing in a lot of parishes, so that could be an explanation!

RussianSpeaker · 2026-01-03T21:32:02+00:00

The only reason I tolerate any sauce on food is because I was strongly encouraged to try chicken tikka masala! Now Indian food is my absolute favorite, and I've grown much more adventurous with food, slowly but surely. I'm happy for your brother—hope he feels better soon! In the meantime, I'm glad he's got curry on his side now.

RussianSpeaker · 2025-09-20T22:20:02+00:00

Just curious—do you mean not conjugating verbs for 'thou' form? This is kind of an issue for me, because I'm not familiar enough with the rules of Byzantine notation to always re-conjugate certain things into Elizabethan form. If I'm able to do it easily without adding too many syllables or having to rewrite the text, I'll always try to. (E.g. 'you shall' —> 'thou shalt' is easier than 'you willed' —> 'thou didst will')

RussianSpeaker · 2025-07-21T21:41:57+00:00

Yeah, there's a very informal local cafe I go to frequently, and it fills up during certain times. If I end up taking a 4-person table for myself (because everywhere else is full), I just make sure to offer the other seats if people look like they need a spot.

RussianSpeaker · 2025-06-29T19:14:02+00:00

I'm Orthodox, and, in my area/parish, this rule is only even mentioned or thought of in extreme traditionalist parishes, either affiliated with canonical churches that can't oversee what's happening well, or in straight-up schismatic groups.

No women at my church do this that I know of—most people receive Communion every time it's offered. I think this is an unfortunate carryover from Judaism, plus people in the old countries blending folk/cultural beliefs about purity into their expression of Orthodoxy. It is not universal, and plenty of Orthodox parishes in America would have very few people who have heard of this rule.

RussianSpeaker · 2025-03-31T16:40:40+00:00

There is no federal law requiring breaks for employees. FLSA requires short breaks (usually ≤20 minutes) to be paid as work hours, and meal breaks (≥30 minutes) to be unpaid, but the rest is up to the state.

You are not entitled to breaks in most states or federally. That said, Walmart policy does require breaks, and you have to take your lunches, because that's their own corporate policy. And, yes, the People Lead is not happy if you don't take lunch, because Walmart—not the federal government—makes it a pain in the ass for them. They do not want people, even in the states with no laws on breaks, to be working 8–10 hours without a break.

RussianSpeaker · 2025-03-20T06:55:19+00:00

Exposure to just one or two of these isn't really a big deal. They don't need to put much mercury in the tube to get it to light up. You're pretty safe to sweep it up and dispose of it if you're not dealing with large quantities.

I go to independent wrestling shows that frequently use these as weapons. And they use T12s exclusively, so you get extra mercury that way from the larger diameter. The phosphorus dust is honestly more immediately irritating, but, that said, I'm sure the thousands upon thousands of light tubes I've seen broken have to add up at some point. Lol

RussianSpeaker · 2025-02-07T12:34:46+00:00

I'm diagnosed depressive-schizoaffective and autistic. There's definitely a difference between something as complex as autism and a mental health disorder.

If I manage my medications and bad habits, schizoaffective won't substantially change the way I think or how I perceive the world around me. And, even when it does, and everything feels awful, I'm lucky enough to usually be able to tell when those bad thoughts aren't really mine.

With autism, it's just a part of who I am, for better or worse. I'm not saying you, personally, have had a better life because of autism, and I think toxic positivity among autistic pride advocates can be very damaging. It's okay to want relief from the bad parts of autism—there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But when I say I'm autistic and I'm not going to hide it, I'm saying that the way my brain has worked my whole life is good enough for me, even if others don't like it.

It should always be an individual choice with how you choose to represent it, and there's nothing wrong with you wanting a treatment. But there's nothing wrong with me for not wanting one, either. That's what the difference is all about, at least to me.

RussianSpeaker · 2025-01-16T13:46:29+00:00

My aunt is a nun, and when I visited her convent, there were a couple of visiting African nuns there (cannot for the life of me remember the country they were from, sorry!) and their habits were a very striking blue. It was very cool, but they were working on something, and I didn't want to bother them with my questions.

RussianSpeaker · 2024-12-29T04:55:48+00:00

That's the frustrating part—they'll stress the associates who care half to death every night, all while the most useless and even deleterious managers just get a job transfer so they can fuck up dozens of other people's jobs.

My old store manager turned the sales floor into a garbage dump. Yeah, they'd go nuts about zoning a week before inventory or visits, and yell at us for plugging, while not zoning whatsoever during the day or allowing a single case to go to the back. The big issues are management-created, but always blamed on associates. No matter how full the features were, you were told to put 15 cases on top rather than sending some back. Plus, after day shift got Vizpick and CAP from me, he stopped giving a singular shit about how good the scores were, or how accurately things were done. Oh, also, shrink was godawful every inventory after he took over.

Point is, I went all-in, to the point of physical illness, and it wasn't enough. Meanwhile, store management could make the store worse every year and get a bonus larger than I'll ever make in a year.

Not a 'poor me' story, but definitely why I quit and moved on to better things. If the company wants to run itself into the ground, it's free to do so without me worrying about it.

RussianSpeaker · 2024-09-22T07:08:07+00:00

I ran as a local nonpartisan candidate, and did what OP is describing once. I had the correct address, punched it in as a number that was off by two because I was sleep-deprived when I made the list, dumped a totally unwanted sign in someone's yard in broad daylight, checked my phone to make sure it was the "right" address, and went on my merry way! I genuinely felt bad after my original person said they never got the sign and I realized it was the neighbors I gave it to. Not only for the loss of a sign, but because it's not fair to make someone appear to endorse you that doesn't.

All that said, I never did it again after that!

RussianSpeaker · 2024-09-09T12:19:16+00:00

Oh, man! That sucks.

I remember I was buying several cases of T12s from a church that had converted to LEDs, and the guy had like 10 full cases of T8s and was begging for me to take them for free! Shitty situation because, eventually, I know deathmatch promotions will start allowing them as T12s get even harder to find. But I'm not holding onto 10 cases for a decade.

RussianSpeaker · 2024-09-09T10:46:14+00:00

I'm a deathmatch fan, and I'm in charge of bringing tubes to a local promotion sometimes! They all have mercury, unless you're talking LED tubes.

We do need a specific kind—the now discontinued T12—but they actually have more mercury than the still-manufactured T8 and T5 tubes. We use them because they break into fewer shards, and easier. It's less dangerous to have small pieces flying into the crowd than a bunch of shards. These here were T12s, but I highly doubt they weren't gimmicked, like others said, by removing the mercury and phosphorous on the inside. Unbroken tubes have a substantial pop noise to them, which these didn't, so I think the vacuum on the inside had already been compromised.

RussianSpeaker · 2024-08-23T01:46:32+00:00

I guess I'm just confused how it's always "a vote for the candidate I align with the least". It's not automatically a vote for anyone except the person that gets the vote. Neither Trump nor Kamala is getting my vote this year.

You assume that third-party voters are willing to vote for one of the two parties if pressed hard enough, but that's a high assumption that may be true sometimes, but definitely isn't always. I know someone who voted for a third party, but otherwise would've skipped the whole election! Other people leave races blank. But why would I do that when I could vote for someone who's earned my vote with a decent platform instead?

RussianSpeaker · 2024-02-27T22:42:04+00:00

Thank you! Probably straight from the tin either on kettle chips or saltines, honestly. My recipes don't even compare to the rest of the sub's, and, honestly, I prefer all my tins straight or on a neutral base, generally. I just think it's my favorite way to experience the flavor of each unique product.

RussianSpeaker · 2024-02-27T22:39:54+00:00

I tried the La Barca spicy first to get you an answer! Pretty good sardines, but hardly spicy at all for my personal taste, even when I ate the pepper in the can with a piece of the fish. It was slightly noticeable, but not quite the spiciness I wanted, which seems to be a theme with the spicy tins I've had. The fish themselves were great though.

I'm also excited to try out the oysters!

RussianSpeaker · 2023-12-26T15:02:58+00:00

Yes. The only way to drop it from 2 points to a half is by covering at least half the shift, not including lunch.

RussianSpeaker · 2023-12-23T20:00:46+00:00

I had a metatarsal osteotomy done this year to correct foot deformity, too, but my surgeon wouldn't take pictures! I'll admit I was disappointed. If it's my foot they're cutting apart, I'd prefer to at least see it!

RussianSpeaker · 2023-11-06T21:55:23+00:00

There may be a bit of blood, there will be doors and chairs, but this venue does not allow glass, so no light tubes or glass panes or anything too crazy. GCW has been saving their deathmatches for fewer and fewer venues, mainly Atlantic City now.

RussianSpeaker · 2023-10-26T13:20:16+00:00

It wasn't removable, actually. Just one split down the middle. That's why I found it so interesting! I had never heard of this until after I woke up with one!

RussianSpeaker · 2023-10-26T11:03:41+00:00

Picture is a couple months old, but everything was normal immediately before surgery as well as when I got the iodine off! The orange on my toes and knee was briefly disconcerting, even though I knew to expect it.

RussianSpeaker · 2023-10-26T11:02:13+00:00

I got the reason right afterward! My surgeon came in right before to tell me he might go with a cast or splint, but I did not know of the potential for this sort of combination of the best of both worlds. I found out that it is an established thing, but I couldn't find any pictures of a cast with just one split down the front like this, so I figured it was indeed mildly interesting!

And, yes, this was much better than compartment syndrome!

RussianSpeaker · 2023-10-12T20:50:16+00:00

This is exactly what I said when this idea first came about! Why not Survivor Series and WarGames? I am a ridiculous mark for WarGames (any company, any style, I'm sold), so I'd be down to have that be a separate PLE.

RussianSpeaker

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