And a booger.

*ghoti

Once again, not a drag queen.

It seems the church leaders have developed a sizable lead over the drag queens in this category.

I feel really bad for their children, of course, but I can’t stop them from where I’m sitting.

It’s worse than that, because if you warn them that their stupidity is dangerous to them and their family, they will dig in their heels and want to do it even more. They are intransigently stupid.

Why don’t they skip the middle step, and just suckle off the teat directly? It’s healthier that way!

It’s a conspiracy! Big Cow is getting in the way!

Birds aren’t even real, man

I’m not voting for Hunter Biden. He’s a convicted felon!

So, we’re now prosecuting all gun owners who have done drugs in the past?

Shout-out to all you 2nd Amendment bros.

Sorry I was being a bit facetious, for the Streisand Effect.

NOBODY BEATS ME!

Show me 12 guys that experience something absolutely world changing, and none of them write anything about it for decades and then tell me they were factually motivated

Literacy and writing were uncommon then, though.

I agree with this and do not dispute it.

However, I think there is value to the human mind in performing ritual, meditation, and positive thinking. We can think ourselves into feeling better. The placebo effect works, even in you know about the placebo effect.

Jesus didn’t know about these things 2000 years ago, but the stories about him make him seem like a worldly rabbi. He might have seen evidence of people getting better from disease through the power of prayer. (Never amputees, though.) The human body can fight disease; it can never regrow a limb.

The human mind also tends to remember positive experiences, and tends to ignore things that don’t seem to work. This is how fake psychics and cold readers work. You send out a bunch of guesses, and get a couple of “hits”, and the client remembers the hits. We all remember the hits. It’s harder to remember the misses. (Side note: I experienced a palm reader at a party and experienced this first-hand, and despite knowing their techniques, I still felt it a little.)

All this makes me believe that our brains are generally susceptible to a construct like religion. And that there could be some value in meditation, ritual, and positive thinking. However religion is frequently a grift and makes people do bad things - it doesn’t have to be, though. Being quietly spiritual is ok, which is what Jesus taught.

PeerTube could use some love.

Pixelfed is pretty damn easy.

What video is that? Now I want to look at it.

No worries. Best wishes and good luck to you and your family.

Are you high?

Is that a requirement for a job in cybersecurity?

OK - this is going to be a crazy suggestion. Do you have any storytelling or entertainer chops? How do you feel in front of small audiences?

I am a part-time magician. (Thus my user name.) I started at about age 40, with a minor interest in magic, which grew over time until I started going pro. It hasn’t supplanted my regular job, but I currently get as much work as I can handle, and then some.

I joined a local club, the International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM), but there are other groups: Society of American Magicians, Fellowship of Christian Magicians, and others. They are all over the world and in most major cities, holding local meetings.

You can become a strolling magician with a small repertoire of solid close-up tricks. I literally took one of my first close-up tricks out of the Mark Wilson’s Course of Magic - a beginner’s book. But most beginner’s magic books have a couple or more of hidden gems in there that are powerful stuff. There are absolutely amazing tricks that require no sleight-of-hand whatsoever. You can launch a complete career out of a beginner’s book. I use some in my own pro repertoire. Note that, magic is about 95% storytelling skill and acting, and only about 5% special effects.

After probably not enough preparation on my part, a friend asked me if I wanted to do walk-around magic at an after-prom party for a little money. That started me off. After that, I developed a few more tricks for a stage/parlor act. About 3-7 tricks can make a parlor act, depending how good you are at the communication/acting stuff. I’ve seen magicians entertain with one trick for 20-30 minutes, and it works.

Here is a step-by-step plan for an entertainer part-time-pro career path:

1. Start doing free shows. Say yes to any that will let you perform and be bad.
2. Do a bunch of shows. Learn more and expand your repertoire.
3. Once you seem to be getting too many shows, and you are getting better with more experience, increase your prices just a bit. Go to Step 2.

I can give more details if anyone is interested. AMA.

Edit to add: I don’t know to what degree your kid has autism, but I’m come across an autistic fellow that became a magician, and uses his autism in his act. He uses magic to bring autism awareness. He’s a heckuva nice guy, too. Check out magician Cody Clark in the Louisville, Kentucky area - from the same magic club that Mac King and Lance Burton came from! Cody tours nationally.

To a conservative: “The economy is only good if there’s a Republican president. We only worry about the national debt under a Democrat. Them’s the rules.”

You are not even answering the questions that you are being asked!

How much can I pay for this service, and can you make it a subscription?