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Haha. You’re my people. For real.

I struggled with my back being numb and tingly for 3 years over a pair of shoes wearing like this. Nearly drove me insane and a decade later I still have issues from time to time.

I’m so glad he did.

I knew two openly gay men when I was growing up. Only two. The world was so unkind to them for so long. They were the butt of every joke. I knew their names before I knew them.

The one man had the double whammy of being black and gay in a rural coal mining town. He was a teacher, and he had to deal with parents fighting to have their kids taken out of his class every year, afraid the “spirit” would get in their kids.

About 10 years ago I was at my lowest point. A drug addict without a dime to my name. My car broke down, so I borrowed my mom’s car. It broke down the first day. This man heard me crying to my mom on the phone at her job and asked to speak to me. He said, “You get you a ride down here and I’ll let you use my van. You keep it as long as you need it.”

I drove his giant Ford van around for more than 4 months. It was so badass, had the old CRT and N64 ports in the back. I put a console in there for him and gave him a pile of games. He was always hauling the local poor folks around to the grocery store and appointments and things. Every time I seen him after that he had folks playing Mario Kart in the van haha.

Everyone had comments too. “Ooooh. What did you do to get that van?” I’d always fire back, “let me drive your car and I’ll show you.” Haha

This is the part I try so hard to communicate to bigots when they go on about how gayness is just in fashion these days.

I’ll pass them this article. That straight world they remember so fondly existed because they pushed men like this into the closet with their bigotry.

They’ll probably say something like, “Well they flaunt it and shove it in my face now.”

I wish the world would just be cool.

My older kids went through a phase where they were just randomly saying “butt” for like a year. By the end of it I couldn’t stand my own ass.

“Hey dad, dad, DAD!”

“What is it kiddo?”

“Butts! Ahahahahaha. Just picture it, crack down the middle, poopin’, just hanging out being a butt.”

When I realized I hadn’t heard the word “butt” for a few months, my sigh of relief could have changed the orbit of the planet.

Nuh uh. I swored on the bi-bull three times. That ain’t in there. I never heard my preacher say that and all he ever talked about was the bi-bull.

Jesus, I am propelled everywhere I go by farts. Makes the kids laugh so I guess I’ll be alright.

No, no, no! You got it all wrong. It’s the kiiiiiiiids.

I seriously have a boiling hatred for computers now because I couldn’t even be a little bit mean. I’ve snapped a few times when people blamed me for problems years after I worked on their stuff, but mostly I just got trampled on and robbed at every turn because I didn’t want to upset anyone.

By the time I was mean enough to demand payment and things like that, I already hated it.

My daughter is passionate about computers, so nowadays if I so much as want to tweak something a little bit I let her do it unless she don’t want to. I don’t want to burn her out too.

Your dad sounds like the childhood hero of mine who got me into computers.

Severe ADHD prevented me from ever learning to code, but I became damn good at repairs and things and just general understanding of computers because he was available to ask questions at almost any time.

He went to school auctions every year and got me a pile of hardware to learn from. He never asked for anything in exchange. All around great guy.

I heard him on the phone a few times dealing with the people who he worked with though. Good god he was mean. I couldn’t imagine him being that way with me ever, but he was brutal when it came to work and money.

A dude called him one time while I was sitting there, he listened for a few minutes and he said, “I’ve got a 14 year old kid here, he’s been doing this stuff for about 2 years. I’m gonna let him walk you through this for the 10th fucking time because you’re a goddamn idiot and feeling like a fool when you hang up the phone with a grown man isn’t teaching you any lessons. Maybe get a pen for this one because if I have to remind that a child walked you through it last time, I’m not going to be so fucking friendly.” I was so nervous, apologized multiple times, when I was finished walking him through it he took the phone and said, “now don’t you feel stupid? 25 years and this kid just schooled you.”

He told me, “you gotta be real with idiots or they’ll bother you with stupid problems every single day of your life.”

I wish that lesson had stuck haha, it just wasn’t in me to be mean. As a result, a hobby that I was passionate about all of my life is something I avoid like the plague now. People ruined it for me by bothering me constantly.

I’m signed up to his mailing list for fun. He described it as the darkest day in American history. I’d say roughly half of the country agrees with that assessment.

Saaaad.

I can’t believe it’s been a year. Damn. I really didn’t think I’d make it. I half worried I’d go crawling back.

My last two comments, one year ago were, “Memmy for Lemmy. Been happy all day.” (though voyager is my app these days) and, “Thank you. I already love it. I hope this is where all of the old heads go.”

That was a response to my introduction to lemmy.world.

I meant it when I said I was leaving. I wasn’t 100% sure I could make it after using Reddit for so long, but here I am.

Exxxxactly

Exactly.

Ah, yes. I see. My friend, when you serve the one true religion you feeeeel it deep down, as though god is talking through your feelings.

You can’t just allow people from false religions to galavant around claiming they are part of the one true religion. And, see, since we’re all immortal (at least in the true religion) this world doesn’t matter really, except where religion counts.

Gaaaaaaah. The whole world filled with people with perfectly good noses, and yet they breathe through their mouths.

Damn. I hadn’t even thought of it. Isn’t it crazy that some people among us would see things like that burn and not even wince. Hell, some would even celebrate. Our lives are so short. It blows my mind that anyone would want to destroy something like that for any reason.

All I know is that I long for it for some damn reason. As an Appalachian kid with too little to eat, that shit was heaven. I don’t know if it was just because I was hungry, but I was sad to see it go.

This made me think of something else too.

My mom used to stop at a gas station, send me in first with a food stamp dollar to buy a .05 cent piece of gum. My brother would do the same thing, then we’d drive down to the next station and do it again. Finally, at the third station we’d come to the car and give my mom the change. Once we were done, she could afford enough gas to go visit my aunt and my cousins.

Once the EBT card came out that was over for poor folks.

People would stand outside of gas stations and stop people, “hey bro, I’ll buy you two twelve packs of soda for two bucks. You can get a candy bar too.” They usually end up trespassed. The smart ones would sell the cards for half their value (smart? I know) so they didn’t get banned from stores.

Working in a gas station in Appalachia I seen a number of people open their wallets and have several EBT cards.

And also, preaching to the choir I’m sure, that’s the biggest reason I hate AI. We’re already contending with misinformation and bad information, and here comes the confused talking computer to make things worse.