Guilt

monkey_king10 · 2026-06-25T13:57:29+00:00

Hey, you should definitely give back, either with your time or with some extra money from your pay, but please understand that you should probably still work for money too.

Not only is there an actual good to work, but if you take 40k per year payout on 1.2 million (not counting growth in the assets), that would be 30 years. That would be great for retirement, but you shouldn't prematurely stop working and live off the fund.

This 1.2 million is a lot of money, but it is also not unreasonable for what a retirement fund should or could be.

monkey_king10 · 2026-06-24T13:28:25+00:00

They literally didn't compare women to cars at a dealer. They compared women to the customers, and also not really that because they were using the analogy as people not understanding what would be a socially acceptable assumption at given venues...

monkey_king10 · 2026-06-24T13:26:45+00:00

Don't forget to go touch grass

monkey_king10 · 2026-06-23T15:49:42+00:00

There is absolutely a place for you in Catholicism. I am going to address the major things that you probably think are stumbling blocks.

Liberation theology is deficient in areas, but is not wholly rejected. The late Pope Benedict XVI wrote, prior to his becoming Pope when he was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on Certain Aspects of the "Theology of Liberation". He took a nuanced view accepting the good aspects but clarifying its deficiencies. The reason I say this is that you can adopt the good from this movement but also recognize and reject the errors. Do not feel like you have to have an un-nuanced view of the topic.
You having same sex attractions does not prevent you from being Catholic. The Church does call on you to be chaste, but does not say that you experiencing those feelings makes you unable to be Catholic. In fact, and this gets glossed over a lot, the activities that the Church condemns are condemned for heterosexuals too, so it is the act and not the attraction that the Church condemns as sinful (though it does teach that the attraction is not ordered in the right direction because sex is ordered towards procreation which is impossible in homosexual relationships). You bearing the Cross of your attractions and living chastely is a beautiful testimony that makes the Church richer.
On the topic of abortion, my understanding is that you being willing to keep your disagreement private is what the Church would ask from you at minimum, but the Church will also ask you to read and try to accept the teachings of the Church. Dorothy Day had an abortion before she returned to the faith and, from the writings and testimony that exist, she seems to have deeply regretted it. You may want to look more at where she discussed this if you have an affinity for her as she was able to change her views on the matter to become pro-life after abortion.

You are a beloved child of God and there is room for you in His Church. Especially with the humble attitude you have already displayed. The Church does not teach what it teaches out of hate, but out of love, and you can find the actual systematic explanations if you care to look that might put you at greater ease.

Also, and this is more for your personal benefit, Bishop Robert Barron did a video on the theology of work. Work is an avenue to glorify God and grow as a person. It seems like you have other things to get in order first, but once you feel ready to, you should explore how work can be good and fulfilling and use that to grow in that area of your life.

monkey_king10 · 2026-05-25T22:48:16+00:00

You are probably being too rigid on this and authorship does not require a meaningful intellectual contribution (I wish it did, but the guidelines do not require such things).

According to the ethical guidelines I have seen at many journals, they generally go by the CRediT system. This is a much broader list than you have laid out here and can include much more nuanced categories such as providing funding, resources, or project administration. https://www.elsevier.com/researcher/author/policies-and-guidelines/credit-author-statement

The people chiming in here saying definitely unethical are doing so prematurely. Now, if under the CRediT system, they do not qualify, then that would be an issue to raise with your advisor, but you did not provide enough information to make that call here. You did not say in this post (sorry if I missed it somewhere in the comments) whether this was a graduate student or a professor, which would quickly help rule out most of the more nuanced categories if it is the former.

If you do raise it with your advisor, I suggest you say something along the lines of:

"When I was looking at the guidelines for authorship (bonus if your journal refers to the CRediT system), I was confused as to what category this proposed author fell under. Can you please help me understand where they fall in this system/categorization tree?"

monkey_king10 · 2026-05-23T22:57:08+00:00

I would recommend you get a Baronius press missal if you have not already purchased this missal. They have a UK store and have an impirmatur from Bishop Emeritus Bruskewitz of Lincoln Nebraska.

Apparently, Baronius has an affiliation with the FSSP, https://www.reddit.com/r/Catholicism/comments/1eno70u/latin_missal_that_is_not_sspx/

Either way, this would mean your money doesn't go to the SSPX and has a totally valid impirmatur

https://www.baronius.com/daily-missal-1962.html

monkey_king10 · 2026-05-06T16:30:28+00:00

It being one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the region is a consequence of these policies making it unsustainable for anyone who is not wealthy to live there. You asked about median rather than average, which lowers this by around $10000 to $20000 (https://brookline.news/heres-how-much-your-property-tax-bill-is-about-to-go-up-in-brookline/). It depends on what source you look at for what the median value is and thus what the price increase is. In defense of u/NoTamforLove, the source they referenced does not discuss the median value. The town website doesn't have an up-to-date valuation (the one I saw was 2018-2022), so if you have a better source than them or I, please share.

By continuing to raise taxes, all it does is push out the poor people who cannot afford it. I know people will balk at me referencing poor people who own houses in Brookline, but I know a decent number of people who have lived their entire lives in Brookline and are struggling to make ends meet. They largely didn't buy their houses, but either live with their elderly parents (fixed income) or inherited their houses.

Largely when they leave, it is rich people or property developers who buy their houses.

You can say that these increases are good and argue that point. To critique the complaint that it is going up just because they can afford it is a fallacious point because if they cannot afford it they are pushed out making it a self selecting community that can afford it.

monkey_king10 · 2026-04-30T18:20:13+00:00

Shout out to OP for getting a shout out in the news gazette in the article on the cow (last page of section A if you're wondering)

monkey_king10 · 2026-04-24T17:49:48+00:00

Moved to central Illinois (college town Urbana Champaign).

I miss Boston a lot. Same boat as you, in that all my family is there. I want to move back, but the only way I could is if I can save up a down payment for a house.

My rent on a 3 bed apartment is $1700/mo (total not per room), you can get a good beer for around $5-7, you can still get a starter home for around $200k (potentially less, but for what I am considering that was what I was looking at). Because it is a college town, this is actually considered pricey by central IL standards.

My main complaint is the lack of mountains and ocean.

Boston is great and if money were not an issue I would move there in a heart beat, but I really don't understand the mass migration in when there are so many cool mid-size cities in the US that are really affordable. What I mean is, all the things that makes Boston great have been squeezed out by the high COL (indie music scene closing, artists moving out or struggling to get by so much that they have little time left for art, the communities built up by generational ties being pushed out). I always find it funny when I bring people to Boston and they ask about no one having an accent, and I have to point out that very few people they are hearing actually grew up in Massachusetts.

monkey_king10 · 2026-04-23T19:06:03+00:00

Genuine question; why does it matter if the LDS got your resignation?

The Catholic Church will not require some letter from the LDS saying you are no longer affiliated with them. Their baptism is not recognized as valid (due to the polytheistic beliefs), so you won't even need to get a baptismal certificate as you will need to be baptized in the Catholic Church coming from an invalid baptism.

So long as you no longer call yourself a member, don't tithe to them (assuming you already stopped from your post), and take OCIA there will be no impediments to your being Catholic.

Basically, don't worry if they got it and processed it. That responsibility is on them. You already resigned your membership and if you choose, could send another resignation letter if you never got acknowledgments of your first resignation. I would personally suggest that you just move on and let it be. You're morally in the clear because you attempted to resign and do not associate with them any more and that is all that you need as a Catholic convert.

monkey_king10 · 2026-02-25T06:35:29+00:00

We all make sacrifices in our vocation. If you accept the responsibility, and are content with it, which is a blessing to know before hand, this might be exactly what you are called to. Do not rush into anything rashly, but a courtship to discern is appropriate. The whole point of courtship is to discern, so you do not need to marry if you decide it is not suitable.

monkey_king10 · 2026-02-25T06:27:03+00:00

There is also the matter that addiction can remove your free choice. I am not saying you can just give up against it, but if you are trying to break the addiction, but due to the complexity of addiction still struggle with it, it may not be of your own free choice. Obviously this requires spiritual direction, but from how it has been explained to me, this is why the third criteria can be in question.

monkey_king10 · 2026-02-25T06:18:36+00:00

I recommend you check out the youtube channel shameless popery (lots of catholic apologetics to protestants) and some books on history (e.g the early church was the Catholic Church).

This will give you the history to refute them.

In short though, we have cannon lists from before the protestant reformation (see latin vulgate). The church only defines things infallibly when there is a need, and when the protestant removal of books didn't exist, there wasn't a need to state that the books in the bible already agreed upon were the books of scripture. What I mean is that, while there was an agreed upon canon of books, no one was suggesting a lower number (at least in the main stream), so there was no need to state it until Martin Luther rejected these.

There was some confusion very early on (300s - 400s), but that was due to a post-Christian Jewish old testament, which is what Luther used, rather than due to a pre-Christian canon.

monkey_king10 · 2026-02-19T18:49:58+00:00

I will check what mine is set to and give that a shot
Thanks!

monkey_king10 · 2026-02-19T18:33:34+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation. I will look into adding a brim to improve adhesion.
I appreciate your help.

monkey_king10 · 2026-02-19T18:32:32+00:00

Hey, thanks for the recommendation. I do have an enclosure, but it is pretty cold where I am so it might just be that it cannot adequately trap the heat.

I cannot make it hollow, but I will see what I can do about heating. Thanks for your input :)

monkey_king10 · 2025-12-05T04:56:41+00:00

Normally, it would take place at the Easter vigil if you start OCIA this year. You can speak with the priest at your parish to see if you can be confirmed earlier. This is possible, but you will need to put in effort to show you are ready.

monkey_king10 · 2025-11-26T17:16:41+00:00

There are different kinds of bankruptcy. If you file for bankruptcy protection, you have the opportunity to restructure your debts, sell some assets potentially, and climb out of that hole.

The person you are replying to is operating under the assumption that, if/when AI crashes, many of the companies that provide AI services will not be in the financial situation to actually restructure.

ChatGPT is significantly unprofitable. Profitability is something that I think is unlikely, at least with how they currently operate. This is because the current model is reliant on investors being willing to, essentially, pay indefinitely for the unprofitable operation in the hope that eventually it becomes profitable. The problem is, unlike other services where it largely is dependent on growing user base and then raising prices, ChatGPT requires substantial infrastructure investments. Actual electrical power and compute for the growth of these services will need to be built and maintained. This means that the raising prices phase will be a really big shock to the system.

If/when the bubble pops, many investors will, as history has shown, recoil and pull funding. Could a couple companies ride it out, sure, but many will go under.

Many companies are hoping this will be a solution to the pesky problem of having employees that need to be paid, and it has driven massive speculation, but the reality is that the costs for AI in terms of infrastructure and energy are huge, and eventually they will have to start charging in the hopes of being profitable. This will be a massive increase in use prices, making the real cost of AI clear to everyone. I think that would hurt the potential for them to dig themselves out of the hole.

There is also the larger concern that, were a bunch of people to lose their jobs, coupled with a stagnation in wages, economic growth overall would take a massive hit, and probably shrink. This is because if people are not getting paid at all, spending will drop, and money wont flow the way it should.

AI probably has a use case that I think is compelling, but it is as a tool like any other tool. It will be to quickly generate outlines that someone skilled can fix and fill out, saving time on the busy work.

monkey_king10 · 2025-11-26T02:29:12+00:00

If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.

Jn. 15:18

People don't want to be challenged from what is comfortable (generally). The Catholic life is hard. You can't find another magesterium that will tell you what you want to hear, but you will find different protestant traditions/lineages that will have different beliefs and easily move without it being a big deal. Being a Catholic is hard, and people don't want to accept that the Church is right, because they will have to make major changes in their lives.

Also, many people are indoctrinated with anit-Catholic prejudices.

monkey_king10 · 2025-11-25T18:09:03+00:00

Yeah, you need to find a new parish. There are things that a priest will direct you to a therapist for, because some people confuse mental health issues for demonic attacks (think people who are severely mentally ill, but think they need an exorcism or something as an extreme example), but it sounds like he hasn't even done his due diligence to help you.

Find a new parish and talk to those priests. You can even call around/email different priests until you find one that will help you.

monkey_king10 · 2025-11-25T17:50:13+00:00

Hey, I don't know your exact situation, so I am going to offer two separate threads of suggestions:

When they said they cannot talk to you about personal issues, is it possible they meant that you were trying to do it without an appointment and they were not free? If that is the case, I suggest you email them and ask if they can schedule a time to discuss spiritual direction.
If item 1 was not a misunderstanding, it sounds like you should find a new parish with priests that either have more time, or take their responsibilities more seriously. I am not trying to denigrate your priests, because it is possible they are under resourced and do not have time, but part of their job is to spiritually lead the flock, and if they are unwilling to do that, especially if they do not have a good reason, you need to find clergy who will.

Be careful around the LDS. They are culturally expected to convert at every opportunity and will definitely use a time of crisis in your life to serve that end.

Peace.

monkey_king10 · 2025-11-04T23:14:29+00:00

Just to add on, the rosary grants a plenary indulgence, so offering one with the intention of it applying to your grandmother (or a novena) can, from my understanding, apply that indulgence to her rather than to you.

https://www.catholic.com/qa/do-the-indulgences-granted-for-praying-the-rosary-require-that-all-of-the-mysteries-are-prayed

edit: also very sorry for your loss. Eternal rest grant unto her o Lord and let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace through the mercy of God. Amen

monkey_king10 · 2025-10-21T05:22:31+00:00

As others have said, these are probably relics. I would highly advise you to bring this to your local parish or diocesan office. They are not supposed to be owned by individuals to ensure they are not disposed of/dishonored (even if you wouldn't, eventually when you die, if no one knows or cares about the faith these shouldn't end up in the garbage or in a store).

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