Emrie

I couldn't really have any male role models because I'm not completely a man anyways, or if I did, what I would admire in them isn't their masculinity. In general I don't think I have any strong role models of any gender. I care more about people's values, how they express themselves, how they're contributing to the world, and how they relate to others. I care a lot about compassion, empathy, and open-mindedness, more than anything. And generally speaking I would say it takes a lot of interacting with someone before I can really start making my mind up on someone. Leo is someone I admire a lot. Then it's a lot of people I'm close with IRL that you wouldn't know.

This looks really great. Thanks for sharing! I shall watch with passion.

I'm definitely pushing myself to do something every day because of this thread.

Went to the gym today. Did 3x8 Squats at 87.5 kg, then 3x8 Overhead Presses at 25, then 1x5 Deadlifts at 60, 80, and 90. 60 and 80 are really just warmup, there were warmup sets for Squats and OHPs too. Then Sauna and, for the first time, cold shower after the Sauna. It felt really nice and I'm going to do that every time now.

Okay I realize this is something very personal and might not look good to everyone else but I did something I'm quite proud of today. So this morning, my mom texted me and told me to get up early tomorrow and help my family move some furniture, on a less than 24 hours' notice. Now there are several things wrong with this: 1) I'm not waking up early on a Saturday. 2) The move would take several hours and I got things I want to do tomorrow that simply won't fit if I have to help them move. 3) it's a less than 24 hours' notice! In normal circumstances, none of that would matter because I'm their personal slave and it's just the established relationship between us, they make me do work for them and I do it. In exchange, they give me shit gifts I don't care about ... though, well I still kinda have to give them gifts anyway so not even that. HOWEVER, today I said no. I told her I'd be sleeping in and I got a bunch of shit planned that it's going to be difficult to fit this into my schedule. We've reached an agreement that they're going to be doing one round-trip without me and, if they need a second round-trip, I can come help them. This should work well for me. And I set a boundary, you can't just request my help at a moment's notice and expect me to give you several hours like this.

I've heard some people say they prefer middle-distance relationships. As in, relationships with someone who lives far enough away that you can't quite spend weeknights together, but not so far either that you couldn't see each other on weekends. Could someone clarify for me why someone would prefer that? What benefits does it give?

Yeah obviously none of these are excuses to actually prevent us from doing it. It's much better in the long run to ban it. I'm just wondering if there couldn't be a way to do it with less friction and without threatening the whole system.

On September 25th, we'll be voting on a popular initiative to ban intensive breeding in Switzerland, and ban imports of animal products that were produced with intensive breeding. I don't know if that's the exact term in English, I used deepl to get that phrase. I'm referring to the practice of putting thousands of chicken inside a single barn and whatnot. This initiative wants to ban that, specifically the idea will be to put in place the rules for the Swiss organic label as of 2018 (at the time the initiative was created, this was the most recent one), but for all animal products. There will be a transitory period of 25 years to implement this. So I'm curious, what do y'all think about it? Do you think it's a good idea to just implement a blanket ban? IMO it's too disruptive to the current system. Meat is already incredibly expensive (as in, if you can find steak for less than 25 Francs a kilo at the supermarket, congrats) and forcing it to be organic will make it even worse. Of course if that gets people to eat less meat, that helps with climate change, but still. There's also the problem of borders. There's actually a significant amount of people who live quite close to the borders with France, Germany, and Italy (Basel, the 3rd biggest city, is literally in the middle between France and Germany), so what prevents people from going and buying their cheap animal food in those countries? Will we have to implement border controls? Technically there are limitations right now regarding what you can cross the border with, but controls are rare and people don't care. Also, you know the Swiss organic label has its own rules, and other countries have their own rules themselves for their organic labels, I don't know about you but I know this will absolutely not go well in any way, shape or form. How are we supposed to enforce our rules and what kind of leeway can we really allow? Of course, for the most part, we can assume that any organic label worth its salt will prevent intensive breeding, but still I'd assume it could be a point of contention. Now, despite all this, I'm going to vote yes, because of course I want to ban intensive breeding, and who knows perhaps it'll inspire the EU to join in and ban intensive breeding themselves. Just because it's disruptive to the system doesn't mean we shouldn't do it, it means the system is broken and we need a new system. Or just eat less meat, plant-based protein powder is an alternative (I haven't really looked into it too much though). Unfortunately it also means it's not going to pass.

The forum is definitely a great platform to use for this, absolutely! Leo actually has the chance to have direct contact with his community through here so it's good to take advantage of that.

I think Leo uses DMT but I've just been doing it sober. Tbh it's not like you can't be fun and socialize sober, just have to learn and practice.

What do you mean by "not be prevented". Do you mean we'll get 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4 degrees warming? Do you mean that we're just going to keep emitting GHGs even well into the second half of the 21st century? And what technology are you thinking here? Geoengineering? Or finding new ways to grow food in less ideal conditions? Even extending that, finding ways to have human beings living in a harsher climate?

Why are cars allowed on the road? They're incredibly heavy, requiring massive amounts of energy. Said energy may come from fossil fuels, which is bad, or the car may be electric but then require enormous amounts of materials for the batteries. They're huge. Like ... huuuuge. They take up way too much space and that is just a wildly inefficient use of space for transporting people. And also all the space you need to park the damn cars for the 90% of the time they're not moving. They're very dangerous, it's very easy to kill or seriously injure someone with a car. Now of course I'm not oblivious that you'd need a car in specific situations I've found that as long as there's decent infrastructure, taking the car is very much a last resort to be used only in rare occasions, and through a car-sharing service. -- Also to answer your question, where else are we supposed to go when there's no bike lanes or sidewalks. Since you're talking about 60 km/h that is outside of cities and very very common not to have a bike lane or a sidewalk in these places.

That's actually very interesting, I've never thought of it that way and I can see it applying in my life. Every time I apply myself and start really working something, it's because I have a stronger desire. So for example, even though I got a degree in Software Engineering, I haven't programmed at all in my free time for about 3 years. But now that I'm looking for a new job, I'm like "holy shit! Look at all these skills I seem to be lacking!" And now I'm working hard to develop my programming skills again. Or recently I also started taking my health very seriously, eating healthy and exercising. Which I hadn't done for like 7 years. And it seems effortless now but only because I have decided that I wanted to get a great looking physical body and that's what drives me.

Hello friends! I'd like to have your arguments about my current situation. I graduated from college almost 3 years ago and had my first job lined up exactly as I graduated. But now I'm actually thinking that I'd want to change jobs. I actually really like the job that I'm doing and I like the overall environment of the company and the colleagues I work with. But there are a few things that are starting to become pretty growing pains and I know that eventually, I'm going to leave this job. But that could be today or five years from now. I would say there are two main things for why there's an expiration date on this job: 1) As I'm becoming more and more left-leaning and anti-capitalistic, it's becoming increasingly difficult for me to work for a bank. A lot of people around me call me a hypocrite and they're 100% right, I really can't continue working for a bank. I'm actually quite strict about this for my next job, it'll either have to be for a non-profit, a worker co-op, or the public sector like the government or a public university. That last point seems to be the most likely because the city I live in is quite a big "student" town. One of the two Swiss Federal Institute of Technology is here, and a lot of other schools. 2) The relationship I have with my colleagues is really starting to become more and more colleague than work friends. Even though we're all very young, it just feels like our personalities don't really mesh all that well outside of work and that's actually quite important to me. I need to have good chemistry outside of work as well. I've actually found a job listing here that I believe I would fit very well and it would be absolutely perfect for me. But the question I'm asking myself is, is it really a good idea to change jobs now? Isn't it too early or should I get more experience under my belt before attempting anything else?

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement, I'm gonna apply right now.

So uhh ... y'all don't think the guy in question might actually been into OP? Like we're just assuming everybody in this situation is straight? As a bi person myself, if I were in OP's situation, I might have actually been pretty receptive to the guy if there was a good vibe between us.

Some context, I moved to this new city recently and have no friends. In fact, I have never had friends I would consider close. My social skills are generally lacking, I have a hard time making conversation and just .. being fun to be around. However, I have decided to better that aspect of my life radically and I want to absolutely get better at all this. The thing is, I really don't know how to make friends. Doing some research around the place, I've heard things like joining clubs like sports clubs or taking classes like yoga or dance classes (I'd actually like to take dance classes because I want to learn how to dance too) ... and even going to bars alone and trying to make friends that way. I did try one thing. The main LGBT association had like a meetup where we had a picnic at a park, I went there and it went just fine (I'm actually bi so I thought I'd meet people I would get a good vibe with). Most of the people there actually don't even live in this city and the ones who did were kinda cool but I don't think I made that good of an impression on them. Idk maybe it's not really my style. I'm definitely gonna keep trying to make friends and going out doing things but one thing I'm super uneasy with is going into social situations (like bars) alone. Like I feel like a huge creep and no one is ever going to want to talk to me. Does anybody have any experiences with this and can enlighten me?

Absolutely horrible experiences. I did not fit in AT ALL. I'll definitely work to release that trauma, even though I think worked through it already somewhat, there's probably a lot to do. Thanks! Yes, that's what I'm trying to accomplish here. I'm trying to make friends specifically to go out with them. The question is HOW! I mean I guess socializing and trying to make friends as much as possible will eventually get me there. I've actually thought about volunteering in an association, yeah. Seems like a really great way to make friends, possibly for the LGBT association I went to. I'm very young, 26, so it's definitely up my sleeve. Workaway sounds great as an experience but I'm not really sure it's going to help me make friends here in this city.

I'm sure you've heard or seen this debate that people have where one side says there's really no point in trying to reduce your own emissions because "70% of all carbon emissions come from 100 companies" and the other side disagrees and says that it's still important and every individual action matters. I wanted to bring this discussion to this forum here and hear people's thoughts on it. Personally I think that individual action does matter. Within reason, of course. Like trying to buy new clothes that are both ethically sourced, made near you (like anywhere in Europe for me), and are also the color and style I like starts to become almost impossible. But taking the train to go on vacation in Europe as opposed to the plane, honestly that's a no-brainer. Trains are pretty comfortable and you can watch a couple movies and the time flies. Also the flight might be faster but there's still only one plane a day so you're not really saving that much time. And the train might be more expensive but it's never outrageously expensive. I'm also not stupid enough to think that's gonna solve climate change which is why I vote for politicians that care about the climate and are ready to take action. Because ultimately we need our governments that have a lot of leverage to take action and solve this problem.

Ideally 0 or even negative so I don't have to pay taxes. Being rich isn't about net worth, it's about how much money comes in every month vs how much comes out.

So basically I was talking with my coworkers about my upcoming vacation to the Netherlands and how excited and really looking forward to it I was. One of them told me that it's a shit country with shit people who make shit cheese and how there's absolutely no reason for me to go there since I won't be using the drugs and prostitutes there. Meanwhile I just stood there and stayed quiet while he was completely shitting on me and my vacation. Then I very nicely and almost apologetically asked him to stop talking about my vacation that way and he asked me why and I shouldn't have brought up the subject if I couldn't take the self-deprecation (yes somehow HIM shitting on me is MY self-deprecation). So I just got up and left instead of trying to at least get him to realize that it's just really not cool to shit on people's damn vacations and he shouldn't have been doing that. This is one example but stuff like this happens often. As soon as confrontation is about to happen, I put my head down, change the subject, or just tell my interlocutor that I agree with them. It's hurting me badly because then I obsess over it and I'll always put up with bullshit rather than facing my fears.

Because the cities are poor. Never-ending suburban sprawl, single family housing, large parking requirements that take up a lot of space make it so cities have a ridiculous amount of road to build and maintain, and incredibly low tax revenue compared to mixed-use walkable neighborhoods. This other video from the same channel breaks it down:

Quit alcohol 6 months ago, started exercising and eating healthy food a month ago. Forgave my family for all the trauma and abuse they gave me during my childhood a year ago, our relationship is much better. I'd say my social skills have improved decently. But I don't really have any non-work friends (and most of them just wanna keep work at work, meaning not a lot of socialising outside of work). So I'm working on that next. For now just focused on eating healthy and exercise, though. I know it's all very basic stuff but I was so deep in depression even only 6 years ago, and my childhood was just so awful. So I think I'm doing pretty well. Also I realized I'm bi before even having had any relationship with anyone, and embracing that aspect of me has just been amazing.

We were talking and it was going well, she offered me her drink and I just said "Oh no, I don't drink". She asked why and I just said I don't like it. Then she told me she couldn't be with a man who doesn't drink because drinking is an important part of her life and tbh I didn't really listen past this point because I don't wanna hear excuses for drinking. Coming out of this, I feel like I need some funny playful way to refuse drinks, could just lie and say I'm drunk enough already, and perhaps not disclose my soberness. What're y'all's experiences with not drinking?

It's the opposite for me, actually. Drinking would actually bring me unhappiness because I just don't like the effects of alcohol.