underreacting

Neverending story.

It's frustrating being the guy pulling his hair out freaking out over things. When people look at you they see a tin foil hat man, but you know how it works.

A few tips to better avoid the tinfoil hat-similarities:

Break up your text into more easily digested paragraphs. One chunk of text like this just seems rambling regardless of how poignant it might be.

Stick to one topic, or make the transition from one topic to another make sense. Going from spying cars, to a whole country collecting DNA through pee samples, to corporations are gangs, to fascist world order, to intelligence agencies collect child porn, to not wanting subscriptions in tech, while sprinkling in the Wizard of Oz at random times (in a more thought-out text it could be a powerful comparison to explain the issue or tie in to a red thread, but not just by mentioning the name and moving on)... It gets quite similar to the speech patterns of someone with untreated schizophrenia.

Clarify why you are making a claim. For example the one about intelligence agencies having lots of child porn: Is it a good or a bad thing? Why do they have it? And how does it relate to the topic of seniors issues with tech, or mass surveillance through phones?

Share your sources, especially for the lesser known claims. Put the relevant links at the end of each paragraph so it's clear what each link refers to and it's address.

I didn't get a degree until my thirties, once I got diagnosed and figured out my needs.

For me it was:

1. Accomodations,

2. Meds,

3. Moving a lot,

4. Low music with a predictable beat and no vocals,

5. Accountability checks (showing up for every lectures or partnering/grouping up for every assignment),

6. Active participation,

7. Learning by doing, and

8. Learning by talking.

9. For maths (the bane of my existence, but soooo satisfying once you get it!) I also got to do the exams in a separate room with headphones on, and could take breaks to run around the building or up and down the stairs a few times whenever I needed to restart my brain. Plus extra time to account for those breaks and the mental breakdowns that preceded them.

10. Meds are essential for me, but they can make me miss cues from my body. So it's important to manage my body's needs like clockwork while on them, regardless of what I feel like I can do or do without in the moment: eat breakfast and lunch and an afternoon snack/mini-meal to avoid emotional outbursts or binge eating when the meds wear off. Take breaks (just stepping out or standing by an open window to breathe, or set an alarm and lie down with legs up and closed eyes) for a few min every hour. Go to the bathroom. Drink water. Blink. Do not put in overtime to "only" solve/finish this one thing -that thing won't get solved until you have a shower or talk to another human. Overtime/cramming will not be efficient studying, the goal is not just passing one test and forgetting, but actually learning and understanding...and resting is an essential component of that.

11. Listening to online lectures (or even worse, pre-recorded one's) was impossible until I got a walking pad, and it made writing assignments and at home-tests way easier. For on campus-days I'd run up and down the stairs during every break in or between lectures (most teachers would do breaks every hour but if not I would just ask them for it). Blood flow through legs means blood flow to brain!

12. Low music without vocals with a good chill beat fill the silence when people are talking too slow and keeps me on track when it gets boring, without stealing attention or focus by being too loud or interesting.

13. With daily lectures I got a schedule and routine, which got me up and started in the morning and left a suitable time slot for lunch (missing lunch is a big no-no!). While doing assignments with someone else it was a lot easier to get started (I'm great at filling uncomfortable silences that happens when no-one know where to begin) and organise and section off the work into manageable parts, while having someone else to take charge of those last 5% that I seem unable to do.

14. I need to take plenty of notes during lectures (might never read them again, but just the motion of writing the words help my listening and retention). I also always ask as soon as I get lost or have a relevant question, and attempt to answer any questions during (even if I get it wrong) a class. If I think my question will get answered I'll write it down and ask them at the end if I'm still unsure. If I don't do this, I'll get stuck on something in my mind and stop following along.

15. I chose a school with a lot of practical learning built into the education. Lots of practical assignments, internship opportunities etc.

16. Our brains are evolved for conversation, language and communication. When getting stuck, I usually need a break... But if the break doesn't solve it, explaining the difficult thing to someone else will often make me figure it out by the time I've finished talking. If not the other person might have an idea for how to think and move forward. Asking questions, explaining complex concepts to each other, bouncing ideas, telling stories are all great tools for learning and more importantly gaining understanding of a topic.

Good luck, and if you managed to read all this: you're gonna be fine!

Awesome! Are you using old yarn for the warp thread (I always figured warp had to be sturdier than regular yarn), or is it two different projects?

Are you going for some type of motif, colour gradients or pure chaos?

I'm excited-to-weave-my-own-rug-old.

Luckily it pairs well with being excited-to-weave-my-own-rug-poor.

You can absolutely get excited about a soft luxurious rug curling between your toes and keeping you warm and silent on a cold nights excursion to the bathroom, compared to the wide-awakening shock of a cold floor or even an uninviting prickly gross old rug. Decoration is a bonus.

I much prefer speeding things up than slowing them down, especially talky stuff like lectures and video essays... But it's an interesting question.

Maybe some fast paced comedies? Either the ones that have like 6+ jokes/minute or have a lot of visual gags or stuff happening in the background (for example Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Community and Parks & Rec).

If you slow them down you might have time to notice, enjoy and appreciate more of the jokes before they move on to the next.

Probably more efficient than rewatching to catch new stuff, but I don't know how the jokes will land slowed down.

At least watch without subtitles so they aren't spoiled before they're played out, if you're able.

Cheap trash earplugs at concerts.

Nowadays I have a good pair that I bring with me, but if the foamy yellow ones are the only ones available I'll buy them and within minutes pull them out to be able to hear anything except the person behind me butchering the lyrics straight into my ear.

This way I can hear the music at the concert, and my worsening tinnitus the rest of my life. Win win.

Those I know who are into Eurovision are boycotting it while Israel is allowed to attend. So among the political viewers the anti-israel vote has mostly self-purged (and the remaining non-boycotters anti-israel votes are split amongst the other 30-or-so entries), while the pro-israel political vote still remains in the competition.

It's much easier to vote for one country to win (like with Ukraine, or Israel I suppose) than it is to vote so that only one doesn't win (because the votes will be split with no clear opponent).

But I'm just guessing, I'm not ajour with Eurovision politics.

I visualized "try" as watching a young child climb something that might be out of their comfort zone, so you're letting them, but stay ready to "catch" them if something goes wrong. I suppose "throw" would be if they soiled themselves in their fall, you can throw them back into the arms of their loving parent for cleaning.

But fuck_around, find_out and yeet would be fantastic.

Try not to "blame" the baby for why she can't keep her old life - it's hard enough having your family dynamics change so massively going from solo child to having a baby sibling, having it be extra tumultuous because of the baby can really strain their early relationship and be a bigger risk of her acting out or regressing to get her old life back. So you're not staying here because of the baby; you're here because you and mom decided it would be nice to have an extra long vacation and be near the hospital.