It’s just fun.

I went to my dentist appointment in a Jack Sparrow costume today. The dentist was dressed as a tooth and his staff were tooth ferries.

It’s just dumb, wonderful fun.

It feels amazing.

I wake up to a quiet, clean house every day.

Stephen King’s It

Great story, but the writing was exceedingly dull, apart from the first chapter. I even tried getting through it via audiobook and still only made it halfway through. It’s just a chore.

udm14.org is about as close as you can get

No.

People are the worst.

That’s shitty. I’m sorry to hear it.

It’s wild.

There are some local and state governments trying to pass automatic voter registration, but it’s an uphill battle, not unlike most things that would generally benefit the public good in this country.

Not a Texan, but here in Missouri, you can request your absentee ballot as early as 9/24 this year.

I requested mine, waited two weeks, and it never arrived. So last week I requested another, and I’m waiting for it. I do think there’s some fuckery afoot with the mail, so I’m probably going to be stuck voting absentee in-person at my local election board.

TBH, it was a crucial life line for me at a tough time in my life economically.

I didn’t have the energy to work a part-time job and just 90 minutes a week translated to an extra $400-$500 bucks a month.

At its core, it shouldn’t be necessary for people to sell blood and plasma, but Americans vote for for-profit health care and their own impoverishment every two years, so regardless of one’s thoughts on the matter, your very blood is now commoditized at the consent of the voters.

I like to get all up in my snuggie. Get a little weird.

I feel bad for these folks.

My building’s HOA kicks ass, but admittedly, the people we elected to it are very ‘live and let live’.

MASSIVELY infuriating.

I hope you find a routine that helps you deal with this. It’s tough stuff, but once you figure out what works for you, coping’s way easier.

As a depressive myself, I concur. Sounds like OP is one of us.

The key is finding coping strategies. I exercise every day and lift weights five days a week. That helps me tremendously. As far as exercise goes, you basically try everything until you figure out what you like and a routine that works for you. If your energy peaks at a particular time of day, that’s when you should plan to exercise. (For me it’s in the morning.)

I also read a lot of books.

Thing is, I don’t engage with people much, and that actually helps a lot with my mental health. I have one in-office day a week and that’s enough to fill up my social gauge.

I always tell people: You can look at the last 44 years and know definitively that, at least in an economic sense, no one you’re voting for cares about your welfare.

So instead of donating your money to political candidates, who have billionaires backing them and don’t need your money, save or invest that money instead.

At least your investments will have some measure of representation.

Money really do work like that. People won’t get better until they got sufficient economic security to get of base level subsitance thinking.

This is very true. I’ve been a heavy saver my whole adult life and I have a number I want to hit. If things stay mostly the same for me, I should hit it within the next 10-15 years, and then I’m putting in my two weeks.

I don’t need to be like one of these people who keeps making money until I die. I just want to hit a number that gives me independence and security and I’m out.

The other thing is that we’re going to have many more elderly people who outlive their savings in the coming generation.

The only good thing in all this was that watching their struggles impressed upon me at an early age the importance of savings, so even at my most destitute I’ve never chosen not to.

I get to stress about my 80 year-old parents driving for Doordash every day, in my car, and I have to trust that they’re going to keep up with the oil changes and new tires and other maintenance.

Because when that car dies there is no backup plan. No one will employ them at their age and both major parties are content to let them starve if they don’t have some other means of paying for the privilege of surviving in America.

Game: Tie between Dragon Age: Origins and the original Bioshock.

Movie: Nightmare on Elm Street

TV Show: Stranger Things

Book: Man, too many to mention, but maybe The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman.

When 99% of voters pick the two major parties no matter how shitty the candidate, it’s unreasonable to expect meaningful change.

Hell, we’d still have two cognitively-impaired presidential candidates if Biden hadn’t had a nationally-televised meltdown, and those 99% would still be defending their cognitively-impaired candidates.