Funny cat image as a reward for opening the post
My cat decided to live at a neighbor's 3 doors down. One day I thought "I'll invite her to the barbecue party". Six years later, we're married and have a 2 year old boy (and five more cats).
this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2026
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That cat knew what it was doing.
That is delightful. I hope you occassionally call that cat, "wingman",
I was bored as hell, sitting in a hotel room with literally nothingbto do for three days (waiting to get my passport back from visa processing), so I looked up the phone number of someone I used to know before we moved to opposite ends of the country years ago. I ended up getting an invite to a discord, and we now have two nights per week set aside for gaming together. Not just him, but the others on the discord too, so I'm not as socially isolated anymore.
And when there's no gaming going on, just hanging out in VoIP is still nice. I might be baking stuff in blender or perl, while someone else is painting minifigs or planning a D&D campaign. It's not easy having a social life when I'm a family man with four kids, living in the middle of nowhere with no shared interests with anyone nearby. This is my remedy.
looked up the phone number of someone I used to know before we moved to opposite ends of the country
Your comment reminds of... like... I just realized I haven't really directly talked to my aunts or cousins in China for...
well the entire time I've been in the US... like nearly 2 decades
idk why, I never really felt an attachment... don't have much memories of them, I was only 8 when my family left...
Now it feels too awkward to suddenly call them...
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About 15 years ago I decided not to be in a hurry when I’m driving, and also to not get frustrated with any other drivers. I just figured I’m gonna be spending too much time of my life in a car I might as well not be getting upset about it. For aggressive drivers I make up a story about how they have explosive diarrhea or something else urgent to attend to. It has made a profound and permanent improvement to my life. Would recommend to a friend.
I did this too. Amazing how you still end up arriving at almost the same time as when you drove like a maniac hey?
I think it’s made me more flexible with time in general. But yeah stoplights and traffic matter more than how you drive. It’s futile to think you can go any faster, just enjoy the ride.
I'm an Uber driver currently and this approach is vital for sanity/happiness/tips. I drive borderline grandma-style now and have gotten more than one compliment for the smooth trip, etc.
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Oh, I got a good one. I started leaving earlier and driving slower. It’s way safer and I get great mileage. It’s also more relaxing to not be so worried about making good time.
I don't drive yet so I don't really get why mileage is important. Is it because you're getting money back for fuel or is it just so you feel justified in paying to keep a car? Or is it more healthy for a car to get more driving in?
You've already paid for the gas that's in your tank, best you can do is get the most miles out of it. Long term habits that increase overall average MPG also reduce wear and make parts last longer. Biggest thing is not speeding up when you see a red light ahead.
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I got hacked on Facebook (2018), stopped using Instagram (2019), quit Reddit (2023) & Xitter (2025).
Now I have only books (lots of audiobooks), Google Keep (own thoughts and pics), Lemmy (random thoughts), and Bluesky (microblog).
My input and output are much healthier, the people I interact with (when actually people) are nicer, and I generally don't feel doomed.
Well, yes, I realize the world is fucked, fucked up, and fucking crazy. I've reduced by orders of magnitude how toxic it is to my headspace because I'm cutting out the worst of the dreck and engaging with more objectively real information. I'm not in screaming echo chambers populated in the millions. I'm happy if I get 10 responses to a post. Updoots are incidental.
Its like leaving L.A. to settle down in Schitt's Creek.
Started putting powdered fiber in my morning coffee and now I have fantastic poops. I also bought a bidet which is nice too.
This person's butt is living a life of luxury
Real talk, do you get hella gassy and if so how do you deal with it? I've been making an effort to eat more fiber and it's created levels of gas that has me concerned that the US might bring me democracy soon.
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6 years ago: messaging a person on reddit. Tomorrow is our wedding
Stopped drinking soda. The weight just fell off
This is my biggest thing I need to change in my life currently. I've been told so many times now that the weight I'm holding on to is most likely still due to the soft drinks and sugary energy drinks I consume way too much of
I went cold turkey and just started drinking only water. But if thats not an option for you, you could also just switch to sugar free.
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I made the conscious decision to mask my autism less in private and stand up for my needs more openly.
6 months later my wife left me, telling me she can't take it anymore.
After she had moved out and I realized this was final, a great wave of relief washed over me.
Now I have to pay the rent alone, pay her $1k/month in alimony on top, and somehow still have more money left over than during the marriage, lol.
And I got to keep the cats!
Why do you have to pay her?
She called in sick for weeks at her new job after the separation, got fired, and now has no income.
The state doesn't pay her any unemployment support because we're still married.
(Divorce is only possible after 1 year of separation.)
As her husband, I'm legally forced to give her 3/7 of the difference between our net incomes.
And since she doesn't have any income, that's 3/7 of my total net income.
That's fascinating. Hope she's doing okay and grows from the experience, and I'm glad you can live without masking now
Out of interest (because I'm neurodivergent) what kind of things bothered her when you unmasked? Or was the seperation just not related to unmasking?
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Divorce is only possible after 1 year of separation.
Oof. If I may ask, in what kind of backwards country do you live in?
Germany.
That rule prevents a lot of abuse of marriage laws (like "marrying" before a large windfall income to save taxes, then immediately "divorcing" again).
It gives couples time to fix their marriage if possible, before all of the legal ramifications take effect.
Or to separate their goods, get legal council, plan moving out, etc. if it isn't fixable.
And the mandatory alimony payments allow the partner who cared for the household to leave their (possibly abusive) spouse without becoming destitute.
I wonder what makes you think it's backwards?
I stand corrected and must admit that is has its uses
Did a sleep study. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea about a month ago because of it and got a machine. Now even if I have a short sleep, I feel more rested that I ever did sleeping a full 8 or even 9 hours.
damn, does it really make that much of a difference? how does it feel now with the machine?
my doctor and i suspect i have sleep apnea. I'll lose up to like 2 hours of sleep per night from micro-awakenings (so out of 8 hours "slept" ill get only 6 hours of actual sleep), but ive been putting off a proper sleep study for a few months now. ive been starting to wonder how it feels to actually be rested for once
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joined an "adult band program" at a music school.
after being vaguely musically inclined since early childhood, 24 years of playing bass, 20 years guitar, six years seriously on keyboards, I've only ever really played by myself along to music that I like.
after a few months rehearsing with the group weekly and taking weekly keyboard lessons, I played four songs on keyboard on stage at a bar with the group. Feels like a monumental leap forward for me. I'm still basically just covering other peoples' music, but now with others and having a blast doing it. This next round I'm also doing a few songs on bass on top of doing some songs on keys.
And now one of the folks from that group invited me to join his band outside of the music school.
Lines up so well with losing my job and having a lot more free time. Keeps me feeling good about myself, gives me stuff to look forward to. And helps me not just wallow in grief and avoidance after our beloved dog of 12 years died late last year (been almost six months and I still cry almost every night thinking about him).
Can't recommend this "adult band program" sorta thing enough if you got some ability with a guitar, bass, synth, drums, or vocals! I'm doing it through a local School Of Rock franchise but there's other places that do the same sorta thing
Slept with a drinking Buddy from university. We have three adorable kids now.
Triplets from a one-night stand is crazy unlucky
I started some kind of anime themed browser game one day with the intent of wanting to see what kind of people would play such weeb trash.
Turns out the kind of people to play that were loyal friends to stay in touch with for over a decade and my future wife, too!
At some point my struggle with the bible culminated in me making my own conclusion away from anyone else: I am done with this god.
The following years I reclaimed my life.
joined mastodon back in 2017
it made me the person i am today, in every way
it was a critical moment in my gender identity journey and finding the place definitely steered me in the right direction
over the years i've escaped my abusive family and came to seattle thanks to fedi, met my best friend and joyfriend both through fedi, and formed a strong sense of community on the servers i host there
i was even in a book about fedi thanks to the work i've done!!!
i owe everything good in my life presently to the fediverse 🥹
I've blocked any YouTube video recommendations (after a video is done, the sidebar, etc), and switched to RSS (RSS Guard is my go-to, after testing about 6 RSS readers). I used Enhancer for YouTube™ to block the bullshit.
Now, I only have 319 videos left to view, in order, from all the channels that I follow. It is now me that has a tight grip on what I watch, and not YT. No more doomscrolling on YT Shorts! No more watching the newest thing (old videos are still solid, but won't be likely recommended)! Use Youtube-shorts block to turn any short into a normal video, in case someone sends you a shorts link.
I can now have a sense of being done watching videos, instead of YT feeding me unending garbage.
RSS feed locations for YT are hidden:
https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id
The channel id you can find on a channel, under ...more near the top, then Share Channel -> Get Channel ID.
I started doing a tiny little injection of estrogen once a week and it totally changed my life. My productivity is through the roof, my confidence has skyrocketed, I'm grinding like there's no tomorrow and I've never felt better. All the techbros should try it if they want to level up their game. Just 5mg/week, it's basically nothing bro. Try it bro you'll never regret taking estrogen once a week. Took me from 0.5x to 10x overnight.
Is this a joke?
The effects match my results, and yeah it's just that dysphoria manifests as pretty bad depression for a lot of people.
Left school in Boston. Got a job in Rhode Island. Nine months in and I got bored. Started looking at jobs on Craigslist. Didn't find anything local. Started scrolling down the cities in the right column. Made it alphabetically down to Seattle. Never been.
Got the job, moved.
Lived here for 15 years. Bought a house, met my wife. Found a place where I feel like I always belonged.
Went sober.
For me it was a small change. I was having a drink here and there, maximum 3 beers a night. I just found that it made me feel like shit the next morning even after having one, and I no longer enjoyed the feeling of even a mild buzz. There was also a huge relief at not having to figure out which situation to drink in or not. Do I have a drink at this birthday party? After a hard day? While barbecuing? If I am just sober the answer is always no, so it eliminates one choice.
I started putting bananas in the fridges crisper drawer. They keep a heck of a lot longer in there. It's almost as if that's what a fridge is meant for... :O
Now I can buy 14 bananas and they'll be good for weeks.
I find that bananas in fridge makes the fridge smell like banana, but in a really bad way.
I haven't noticed that at all. I do make sure to put them in when they're still a bit green tho. The way I like it.
https://leisureguy.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/rcaf_xbx_5bx_exercise_plans_text.pdf
15 minute a day exercise program.
Started this one last year, highly recommend.
One piece of advice though: Do take an occasional day or two off, especially if you notice it’s continuously taxing or hurts.
The body sometimes needs a few days to actually heal and recover before being able to climb to the next step
When I rolled my character on that WoW server, I didn't expect to move so far from home and spend the rest of my life with someone I'd meet online.
I joined a random Deep Rock Galactic lobby once. Usually I host them so it was odd for me join one idk why I even did that. Ended up becoming friends with one of the people in there and they're one of the best most caring people I know. We talk almost every day now
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