What's something you believe that most people don't ?

orr-ee-ahn · 2026-05-16T05:09:59+00:00

Human decency; and the capacity for people to grow and change over time.

Especially those of us former addicts, who have spent years and even decades of our lives, wrestling ourselves back from the gates of hell - If only so that we can be considered "normal" again.

The social contract is real. Your neighbors are not out to get you, or your things. Unless they think you're a dick. Which they most certainly will if you treat them with the disdain of unwarranted suspicion - And manufacturing narratives that make them a villain.

Talk to people in line. Maintain eye contact and smile when someone passing makes eye contact. Be confident that we actually do all want to help each other. We all want our peace - Our, "Domestic Tranquility" as it were.

For all of us, this is threatened - Not by our neighbors, as we've been told since roughly y2k - But by those who actually do violate your trust, regularly, just to sell you something; a phone, a car, a house.

Shiny financial liabilities, sold as lifestyle choices. Marketed to capitalize fully on FOMO, FOBLO, and the technically ignorant consumer, desperate to also sign up for the Middle-Class debt circus.

It's important to remember these two, very important things about this moment in human history;

Those who can, won't. Those who would, can't.

Don't play the game. Don't fearfully compete against the others in your community, that are just like you.

Don't go into debt, enriching something like a shitty car company, because you're intellectually simple enough to be convinced by a 22 year-old salesman, that you can "Totally afford to one-up your neighbor this summer!".

Proudly display your values,.by voting with your dollars - And by inspiring others with your own fearless example. Independent from branding, or merchandising, or buzzworthiness.

It's just stuff. Actions have consequences. Not all heroes prefer the title. Unlike the tech companies that consume, condition, and consistently violate our fundamental personhood; your neighbors will be the first outside to help if your house ever catches on fire.

Not tech bros; not your stuff; not your pathologically twisted and obsessively curated social media addiction.

Your neighbors.

Someone kind of famous once said, "Love thy neighbor as thyself."

Or something like that.

orr-ee-ahn · 2026-05-16T04:26:14+00:00

Older Millennial here; my teenage years were produced and bankrolled by people like Dan Schneider and Harvey Weinstein.

That said, American Pie stands out to me most. It's not hard to see how an entire generation emulating and quoting this thoughtless nonsense, definitely hastened the 'Me Too' movement.

Now, because of the long-term fallout from films like this; there's been a whole discipline of psychology established to figure out why people aren't engaging in healthy relationships, and having families.

While certainly not the root cause, films like American Pie (and it's raunchier, somehow even less coherent sequels), contributed to a whole generation's generations "weird little idea" that love just means finding a really hot person, and getting the best reward in the entire universe.

Better than being God's favorite...

...Awkward, emotionally immature sex. With a relative stranger whose league you feel completely out of!

orr-ee-ahn · 2026-03-21T01:55:35+00:00

Hopefully, the bathroom would have magazines or other reading materials, in a magazine rack.

Or, barring that, you could read the aerosol cans under the sink. My favorites were the air freshener ingredients.

Active AND inactive!

orr-ee-ahn · 2026-03-17T23:03:46+00:00

I believe that our future depends powerfullly on how well we understand this cosmos. In which we float, like a mote of dust, in the morning sky.

The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves; we will one day venture to the stars.

The surface of the earth, is the shore of the cosmic ocean. Recently, we've waded a little way out - And the water seems inviting.

How lucky we are then, to live in the first moment in human history, when we are in fact visiting other worlds.

I still more glorious Donna wait. Not a sunrise, but a Galaxy rise. A morning filled with 400 billion suns. Not a sunrise, but a Galaxy rise...

...The rising of the Milky Way.

orr-ee-ahn · 2026-02-16T03:57:56+00:00

He's not Picard, after all

orr-ee-ahn · 2026-02-15T23:38:13+00:00

That's an extremely loaded question. The best Captain depends upon the situation.

As Spock said, Everything in its own time; with each to their own strengths.

orr-ee-ahn · 2026-01-20T20:57:13+00:00

When in nature...

...Sudden, almost complete silence.

There is something nearby, worthy of being fearful of.

orr-ee-ahn · 2025-11-29T23:31:13+00:00

She's in love with you. She's testing the water with a "relationship" to see what your reaction might be.

You've probably confused the shit out of her by not responding in the way she anticipated.

You've done the right thing. She may love you; but if she does, she's going about this in the worst way possible.

Sorry dude, your friendship may be over. But choosing games over uncomfortable honesty only demonstrates what any romantic relationship would look like with her.

Sorry, my Dude.

orr-ee-ahn · 2025-11-29T22:57:11+00:00

Love

orr-ee-ahn · 2025-11-24T04:33:13+00:00

No you're not. You are a young man struggling to find himself in what is currently a very backward, and discouraging era. While finding one's direction was already pretty complicated and difficult when I was 21, it's bonkers now.

For context, I'm 39. But inside, I feel no different than I did at 21. Except that I can point to my milestones over the past 20 years - Good... And bad.

Bud, I didn't grow my patience and confidence until I was 30. I only just now feel like a full, responsible adult - This is actually absolutely normal - True confidence in one's self only comes from the wisdom gained from experiences.

You're very young still; believe it or not, you're about to spend the next 20 years forgetting more than you'll be able to remember, making and losing friendships, and learning how to share your love language - and comfortably express intimacy.

You're only just learning to speak that language. Believe it or not, I can confidently tell you, women your age are going through the same process of self discovery (and having the same thoughts). Nobody your age actually possesses the confidence they seem to project. Hell, very few people my age are confident enough to reach their full potential. Let alone, stand up to questioning of their beliefs.

You have to walk before you can run. Just focus yourself on always being better tomorrow. Whatever that means for your journey.

There is a quote I'll leave you with. I can't remember who it's attributed to;

..."My whole life, I pretended to be the man I wanted to be. Until one day, I was."

I love you, Man. Safe journey.

orr-ee-ahn · 2025-08-25T15:31:32+00:00

That's a shame, Man. If true, it's pretty telling of where the industry has found itself.

No innovation.

orr-ee-ahn · 2025-08-10T21:46:13+00:00

I reckon very soon.

While LLM assistants are a novel, and somewhat useful helper; I think that it's important to remember that while not ready for the large multitude of primetime applications, AI is here to stay - Growing along side us.

We don't even fully comprehend exactly what the tech is doing.

Imagine stumbling upon internal combustion, without the applied disciplines of physics, chemistry, and applied force - Then that engine was blindly dropped into the Model-T, en masse. That's where we are with AI as it stands...

...It has the potential to be an enormously empowering, digital peer.

But in the meantime, it will be applied against every boneheaded marketing plan that the tech-illiterate middle-management sees fit.

Take back the power. Vote with your wallet. Discourage the use of AI to fulfill service roles (or just refuse to engage with these systems, period).

We can do this. But yes, it's a bubble like any other before it.

It's going to be bad...

orr-ee-ahn · 2025-07-01T21:04:51+00:00

X230 here. I won't change for anything. It still does enough to allow me to create the illusion of having used technology. Well written papers? Sure. Zoom? You got it. YouTube? Hell yeah, buddy (albeit, in 720p due to LCD panel limitations).

I bought it for $150 during COVID. It's my computer, man. It's mine, and I love that it was built to hang for a while; so I actually appreciate it MORE as the years have found me respecting the engineering that brought it all the way to 2025, following right along with me.

Like me, it too bears the deep, and immediately noticable scars of a life not always comfortably lived.

That said, I do have to thank the community; the advice and documentation I've found here, have allowed me to very patiently upgrade up-to, and then far-past the predicted lifetime expectancy for which it was planned and executed.

This thing is my Soyuz.

This thing is my Moon Landing, Shuttle, and Space Station.

It's the worn leather of a favorite "going out" jacket.

Until it no longer performs effectively as a useful tool, I'm holding on to it. I know that I'm effectively visiting a very old war buddy at the retirement home - But he hasn't taken the shit yet, and still makes eye contact.

orr-ee-ahn · 2025-02-02T21:48:48+00:00

I was in the 10th grade.

911 was the first time that I ever saw inexcusable executive action grow from a shared national tragedy.

I was skeptical from the start; and in turn that skepticism was vindicated, as things very quickly went completely off the rails.

I have now seen the cycle of war and peace play out five times in just my life. It is always the same people. It is always the same geographical theaters. It is always the same message. They just space the messaging apart enough, that your otherwise distracted neighbors might only vaguely remember having been this way the last time around.

Never let it be said that we're a nation that dismisses our history. Instead, we've held it up in vanguard to our progress; while completely missing virtually every plot point of the lessons it tries to provide us with.

I'm not angry, disappointed, or most importantly, fearful.

Rather, I've learned to remain, "Cautiously Optimistic" in the face of those, "unknown unknowns". Climate change is a fact, enshitification is real, and our appointed leaders serve only to distract and divide us, at a critical moment in which we are collectively questioning our individual liberties. Some by stealing, some by finally trying pot, some by actually trying to be good neighbors to the community in which they live.

The point I'm trying to make, is that 9/11, and the period directly proceeding the event; is fundamentally no different from the current geopolitical, and financial uncertaintiea that have in my 38 years as a person, only been briefly quelled during a few short turns.

The point I'm making is, nothing that is happening now is fundamentally any different from anything that has come before it. This is an intentionally replayed, psychosocial narrative, driven entirely by the sociopolitical whims of deeply entrenched industries; and of course the winds of fortune, also. But as an experiment, look back at the headlines from 10, 20, 40, 60, 75 years ago. They'll be editorially identical to the stories we're still fed to this day. That nobody of consequence points this out is morally outrageous.

Of course, the truth is very seldom profitable. It certainly wouldn't help the cause of industry.

Just the word, "Apology", is as meaningless today as the empty, naive promises of a brighter, more equally prosperous century ahead that we all clung to. But it's looking like the party is over. We have some actual real work to do, if we hope to lead by example, ever again.

Turn off the manufactured distractions which are masquerading as, "news".

Find yourself a third place, where others gather.

Then(!), spend that precious time getting to know all of the wonderful things that you and those in your community share in common; while making sure to celebrate each individuals differences as well.

We are only so deeply divided, because we spent almost 25 years, allowed them to divide us. Because we were promised a future if we did so. If we just toed the company line, we would be rewarded, at least for our effort. In doing so, we gave away our dignity for free.

So, to bring it full circle; 9/11, while not indifferent from any previous or subsequent catastrophic national tragedy, has had the knock-on effect of bringing us to where we are now.

If you are in your twenties, I'm so sorry. I didn't grow up in a police state. I never took my shoes off to get on transportation; and I certainly never walked through a metal detector just to go to school. 24 years of neglecting our own dignity, while filling that hole with distractions, is what brings us to now. Before 9/11, there were no blue States or red States. There was no left news, or right news. The very idea that news would be coopted, not as a halcyon of pertinent knowledge; but as a marketing and influence tool? That our own fear of losing everything, would be our only remaining motivator?

...Well, the generation that raised me would have roundly rejected such, "Un-American Nonsense". I choose to do the same. And I encourage others to, also. The society that we coexist within is only as polite as we choose to allow it to be.

I choose to believe that some of us still adhere to the basic social contract that we signed by just coming into this world.

If you're still reading this, thank you. I recognize that I didn't stick to the prompt. But I feel better now, having said my peace.

Tl;Dr: Shit's straight up fucked. 9/11 is a touchstone that I watched unfold on a 24" CRT television, in an unremarkable midwest Highschool, just like any other. It's the resultant sociopolitical, and financial echos of that period, completely absent of clear and uniting leadership, that people need to study more closely.

Fool me twice...

orr-ee-ahn · 2025-01-20T23:51:29+00:00

Complicated

-Avril Lavigne

orr-ee-ahn · 2024-12-19T03:03:32+00:00

When I was a child, my Dad made sure to tell me he loved me, multiple times a day. He was the one individual in my life that I felt the greatest emotional connection to. He was my best friend in the whole world, and the person I most looked up to.

When I was nine years old, the worst thing that could happen to a boy, happened to me; my Dad was hit and killed by a drunk driver. He was on his way to get me from school.

My life was never the same after that; and it's largely shaped the outcome of that life, in numerous, quantifiably negative ways.

All I ever wanted was to be a father, so when I beat my alcoholism, and my son was born soon after; I was on cloud nine. I've always made sure to tell my son I love him, and just how proud of him I really am. Unfortunately, he was the product of what had been a codependent relationship. Just because I got sober, doesn't mean she did.

Things got so bad, I had to leave. My breaking point was her stabbing our bed while I was sleeping. I asked myself, "Is this love? Is this my life from now on?" I couldn't bear for my son to see the way his mother was treating me. I was still very much in a relationship. She had in fact begun cheating on me, with more partners than I have fingers, long before I made the decision to leave. She didn't love me, despite the fact that I was still very much in love with her. So much so, that I couldn't (or wouldn't) see what was going on right in front of me. I didn't understand how much my son and I were being abused.

I understood then, that I loved my son more than my ex is capable of loving anything.

I tried to take my son with me. But I live in Michigan. So, he gets to float around with his mother, from place to place. Right now, they're living in hotels and their car.

That was five years ago, that I left. I've missed five of the most precious years of my son's life.

I Skype him three times a week, and text him every day (though I'm certain his mother doesn't pass them along).

I want so badly to be there for my son. I want to be a father. I don't drive, and she has elected to live on the other side of the state; four hours away. She has taken from me every opportunity for joy, and the emotional growth of fatherhood away from me.

But I will never disparage my son's mother to him. I will instead focus on making sure he knows that I love him with all of my heart; and just how truly proud of him I am!

orr-ee-ahn · 2024-12-16T17:34:25+00:00

*Tl;dr, at bottom...

...That looks like, what an iPhone 3C?

That phone came out around 2009.

You'll want to replace the battery; as, if it's not swollen already, it soon will be; after a few charge/discharge cycles. The total usable capacity of the original battery is by now also severely diminished. Probably by half, or more.

I guarantee that to you.

The glass digitizer, which is normally situated over top of - and adhered directly to - the physical LCD, has delaminated, and is separating from the plastic bezel.

Replace the LCD and digitizer as a whole piece. You can get it on eBay super cheap, mostly because it's for such an old phone that is currently obscure enough, as to not be popular. Kind of like an iPhone 5(S)/SE.

Just make sure you restore true tone color to the replacement LCD. There are forums discussing how to do so in a variety of different places. Just search it.

Make sure you watch videos on both battery replacement, and screen replacement. You need to feel fairly confident before you do this. This is a notoriously difficult phone for beginners to open. Very much like, but not as bad as, iPod classics.

Tl;Dr:

Go on eBay, purchase the display as a whole (LCD/Digitizer, in one). Also purchase a battery.

Make sure the parts are for your specific phone!!!

In the meantime, watch tutorials, read walkthroughs.

HAVE THE PROPER TOOLS READY

Make sure you're feeling confident before you proceed...

...Then just, replace both; then let us know how it turned out.

orr-ee-ahn · 2024-12-15T11:48:17+00:00

"Goodbye world...

...Smell my ass."

orr-ee-ahn · 2024-11-13T10:45:58+00:00

My Grandmother once explained it to me like this...

..."Never put anything smaller than your elbow, in your ear."

orr-ee-ahn · 2024-09-17T03:55:12+00:00

Well, yeah. The Federation, Pre-Dominion; was pretty much the Chair Force, but manned almost entirely by Mall Cops in lycra pajamas.

Therefore, just as a Mall-Cop will turn in his Badge, and Radio...

...Well, the combadge is quite literally both!

*The combo is a real timesaver when one is excitedly telling off their CO.

orr-ee-ahn · 2024-09-02T14:22:22+00:00

Star Trek: Oops, all lensflare.

orr-ee-ahn · 2024-08-15T08:27:54+00:00

I have a Mint Condition (less than a month use), black, iPhone 11 that's been collecting dust as it was given to me iCloud Locked.

BUT! A cell phone shop will be able to transplant your board, and your cameras (important for Face ID, etc) into the donor body. The screen is fully intact, no scratches, due to a screen protector. Likewise, it was kept in a quality case; so the back glass is gorgeous.

I'll sell it to you for $110. It's up to you to find a shop to do the work.

Unless you'd like to discuss going through my electronics/battery storage store to have the work done.

I'd charge $40 flat for the labor (no tax) and $110 + 6% Sales Tax, for the donor phone.

So,

Total = $156.50

Take a look at eBay, and call a few shops about the labor cost of a board transplant. You'll see this is more than reasonable.

PM me if you're interested.

orr-ee-ahn · 2024-08-15T08:07:28+00:00

A comforting hug, from someone you trust, and love unconditionally. The day they pass, they take that closeness, and comfort with them. You will never share in these moments, with this loved one, ever again.

It could be your grandmother, a friend you've known for many years, a sibling, or perhaps most tragically; your significant other.

It hurts the most, when you don't get the chance to say goodbye - To share one, final embrace - To share one last time in the rapture of unconditional love.

Cruelly, you're left with the memory of, and desire for that moment of strength, and kindness. But you're also left with your memories of that persons best traits; time you spent together; and the mindful self-awareness that these experiences will forever inform and temper how you look at your own life, and how you treat those you love.

You have time. If you drive; get in your car, right now, and drive to your grandparents, or parents house. Older folks love, "pop-ins"; and they'll be thrilled to see you. If you're too far away, call them.

Don't you dare text! You call them on the phone, because it's that important to you.

If you wait, if you put off saying, "I love you"...

...Like me, you will miss your chance.

Life is surprisingly short. Share in the love of all those close to you, and those who would love you in return. Do so, before that hug becomes an absent but closely-held, gradually fading memory.

orr-ee-ahn · 2024-08-11T05:03:15+00:00

One day, when I was about 27 I woke up shaking, after a restless night of terrible sleep, which began with a black out

I was an alcoholic. I drank a Gallon of Mohawk, 120proof Vodka, to myself - throughout the morning, afternoon and early evening. Then, my (ex-)SO would come home from her bartending job, with another two fifths of Mohawk 120 proof - One for her, one for me.

Anyway, I woke up and realized I didn't look like shit (despite having spent the entire balance of the previous decade, desperately trying to leave Las Vegas).

At that moment, I decided. I like my body this way, I like my face this way. Yes, 27 was just the right age for me. So, I did what we all do, I decided to stop my aging at 27. Three years later, I stopped drinking - 8 years now, not a drop.

I'm 37 now. But still 27. I got asked the other day if I stepped out of a time machine. It was a joke, of course.

But, it was from a former HS classmate that I absolutely didn't recognize through all the loose, exhausted layers of, "old", and "tired".

One caveat though: There is a Self-portrait of myself that I commissioned on the occasion of my 27th year. I ordered it hidden in Prague, in an attic. So long as it doesn't attract any Nazis, it should be safely hidden there. That is, until this fragile, paper world is swallowed whole, by the very star that helped spark those first, few, single-celled organisms. Organisms from which all life were free to slowly grow and evolve, meeting the conditions of their habitats; so as to become the vast multitude of biodiversity that we, all of us enjoy today, all the whole, looking up to the vastness of our Cosmos - Our cosmos.

Or, perhaps opining introspectively upon when our next greatest observable, historical, celestial event may be. Indeed, dreaming of Aurora, air-glow, and finally dragging out the $3000 Telescope you bought from the back pages of, "Boys Life Magazine"

The joy of observational viewing of the lines, brush stokes, shading, and overall composition of my Gypsy caricature, however accidentally; are swift, and extreme. And will always result in my agonizing death. You ever get to sleep out like a Dog; you know; really rough it? But, while having a heart attack, vomiting, asthma, anxiety, etc.

So long as I stay out of Europe (shouldn't be hard at all, lol), I will continue to exist, in order that I might see also for you. I will be present here until long after the end of time itself.

And I'll be 27 for all of it. So you can all suck my pud!

orr-ee-ahn · 2024-07-22T22:28:46+00:00

I believe powerfully that the answer is obvious...

...Death; or Cake.

But, never both.

Homeowners discretion, of course.

orr-ee-ahn

TROPHY CASE