Only way you can get me to quit smoking is the way I quit smoking last time I quit smoking, which was for someone else. The rest? Time for some major substance abuse and consuming of all the pork rinds. And potato chips. And artificial flavors. There’s nothing quite like abusing the substances and eating deep fried food with a huge gallon of alcohol and lighting up a cigarette afterward or even during. That’s vacation and summer. Can even get tanned all at the same time.

awww, you’re into it like I am. We are both into it mega style. Let’s get together and make the mods pin this. As a weekly thing, it is the thing to pin. Do you know how to convince the mods to pin this? I support it.

I’m glad, because that’s the pressure that’s on you, no doubt, in finishing this dissertation. Life is funny. Your whole self worth is not this. It’s a transactional relationship. Your committee is hopeful, so you should be. Get the shit done and get on with your life, which has many surprises in store for you, don’t I know? You’re definitely worthy. Nobody flunks the dissertation stage, so just write the thing. You’ll be fine. Trust me, if your life is anything like mine, there is a life beyond the dissertation that is far more challenging and will wipe the glue right off your ass.

This needs to be pinned like the last one, by the way. I can’t keep track. Please pin it and unpin the previous one.

If it’s any consolation, I glued my ass to the chair and wrote the PhD thesis, and even got tenure in academia. I quit my job after being tenured and promoted. So it’s all good. It’s nice, though, to finish the fucker. The best way is gluing the ass to the chair. I can attest. Get well soon!

What kind of thesis? Is it the MA or the PhD? I’ve completed both. First step is to get some glue and a paint brush. Second step is to slather your ass with the glue. Then, you sit in the chair. If it’s MA, you can probably get away with less glue. Do this after you get better. Just get better really soon. Then glue your ass to the chair. You’ve probably learned how to write a lot by now with your ass glued to the chair. Feel better! Ass gluing isn’t good for you right now.

OMG. I love Malibu. I guess it isn’t Malibu Creek, but whatever. I’d totally go camping in Malibu.

Well, that is just not fun. You’re nice because you know those friends of yours meant well.

I’ve been drinking a lot, so it’s pretty good. It’s really nice to relax on vacation, drink a lot for the summer, and kill some brain cells. Also smoking more. Drinking and smoking more, for sure. I also made myself some french fries today, with grilled cheese sandwich. So, kids’ menu straight out of Friendly’s, drinking, and smoking. Week couldn’t be better.

Age is wasted on us. We get older which means we get wiser, better at living, but with age we get closer to death. It’s really an unjust world.

Don’t watch The V (a classic miniseries that was actually remade, too. Don’t watch either.) Also, stay away from Colony and don’t even think about watching Falling Skies. To feel slightly more upbeat, I would prefer The X-Files although sometimes the mood is “wow people are disgusting and don’t care about other people and will even suck up to alien invaders.” Star Trek is nice because, yeah, some of the aliens and some of the people are banded together to fight for justice. Lost in Space gives a similar vibe. Anyway, I agree with everything in your OP and I agree with you here. The aliens concept can turn into a happy fairy tale that provides a therapeutic mental escape from the drudgery of the real world that doesn’t seem to be getting better at all. People say “it gets better” because they mean well, they are trying to inspire hope. One thing I’ve learned is that in some ways the shitty things “get better” because over time I learn to live with the shitty things I can’t do a damn thing about.

It really depends on what hardware you have. A new laptop just released last month will have a ton of issues with any linux distro. The guy we’re replying to installed linux on a mac laptop. Not ever easy! The ThinkPads often work well with any distro, as far as I know. Same goes for HP laptops. BUT, most gaming laptops are a no-go, unless you’re ready to spend hours tweaking after installation.

I don’t think this is the right way to answer the thread you are referencing. Instead, you should start a post in this community talking about something you think might be interesting to discuss. What you’ve done, whether on purpose or not, is create a thread in which people can hide themselves. Instead of creating a new post in this community, they just say in a comment stream what they wish they could have the courage to make a new post about. What you’ve done is create a sub-community within the community. People put in this thread what they’d like to talk about out loud, yet feel better about saying it here because it’s buried. I don’t think you had this in mind by design when you created this post, but this is what has happened. People are posting a response to you with things that they didn’t create a post about. Are you all that afraid of creating a new post? I’m not. I’m trying to figure out a post to create here, independently of this thread, to contribute to this community. I have nothing right now of interest to discuss because I live a hugely dull and boring life. Just as soon as a bird shits on my head when I’m walking under a tree, y’all are getting yourselves a post in chat about it I created. Because that’s pretty much all I can possibly have right now. If you’re smart and take a look at the lay of the land, you have nothing to lose actually starting a new post here that maybe you felt like you couldn’t post on Reddit. Nobody here is going to rip you a new one. You have to be nice. Remember what that was like in society, when you actually felt like being nice? Maybe if you are nice and just accept the fact that people here are nice, you won’t feel the need to do this. I’m super fucking nice. Are you super fucking nice? I swear, this place needs a new motto. “Are you super fucking nice? Be(e) super fucking nice.” I am so into this beehaw thing you have no idea. Make a new chat post about your life that you think might be interesting. I’m at a huge loss. This community is the first to fucking know as soon as something unusual happens to me. I’m making a new post in here. And everyone is going to be nice to me so much I’m going to die from all the love. That’s what make this place the place. I love it!

You’re so welcome. I’m grateful to find someone with a similar problem I have. It’s helpful to commiserate. I’m so glad you can still ride your bike a little. I think that if my knee hadn’t swollen up like it did I would perhaps have found myself in a similar situation to yours. Until two weeks ago, I would have called it “working it out,” with “it” being the discomfort. Joints are like that. I have a small pain here and there in the past years and walking a little has provided me with relief. Even now, it feels good to bend my shitty knee when it’s sore. In fact, when it starts to feel funny, I automatically bend it to make it feel better. Moving joints helps with pain. It’s just not always a good idea. How are we supposed to know? We aren’t specialists in this stuff. So, in my mind, you did nothing stupid. In fact, it makes total sense to me. I’m going through it now as I’m typing, actually! Anyway, feel free to chat any old time. Always happy to listen and read about your experiences and be helpful if I can.

I guess we are not twins. I was hoping you could ride your bikes a little. No bikes at all, then? I’m very sorry to hear that. I don’t think you messed up your knee being foolish or doing things thoughtlessly. Injuries happen because we move around and also because we get older, as you mentioned in your OP. Please don’t beat yourself up. If you can’t ride your bikes anymore I guess for now grieve the loss you feel. When you’re ready, you’ll find alternatives, but it will take a lot of time, especially when you feel as passionate about your hobby as you clearly do. I’ve been swearing at myself around the house today because sometimes I forget I have a shitty knee and kneel down on the floor or put weight on it. So, solidarity. I hope you can process all of this in a way that will make sense to you. And again, please, don’t beat yourself up. Go easy on yourself, OK? If you can’t convince yourself you did nothing wrong, at the very least, please find a way to forgive yourself. Everyone deserves forgiveness. At least, that’s how I see things.

I’ve been living with a newly acquired “old man knee” now for about two weeks. Last Monday, I woke up, and my right knee hurt like hell and was swollen. I could barely walk but managed to get to the emergency room. The doctor said I probably overdid an activity. I have no idea what activity I overdid because I’m new to this concept of overdoing things, so I’ve started asking around. I’m like “hey, what would you consider overdoing this or that?” I wear my knee brace when I go out for a walk, I take my anti-inflammatory pills when needed and my paracetamol when needed, and I’m learning by asking people. I think you and I might be similar. I’ve never broken anything. Until now, I’ve been doing all the activities like I’ve always done them since like, I don’t know, age 18. For me it has been a learning experience, yes, and I think that’s a bright side you’ve pointed out. I feel more humble than I did before, too, and I think that’s good as well. I was planning on taking a very long, all-day walk in the country before this happened. I didn’t have a particular day programmed, just any time before the summer is over. I guess this sort of thing forces us to change plans. In your case, maybe you can’t live on your bicycle and do a huge tour, but you can totally compromise. If I were you, I might try to find a bus company that allows people to take their bikes with them. Then, you could do a bus and bike combo tour, right? If you have a car, do a drive the car and bike ride combo tour. In my case, I’m going to see how my knee improves (if it improves) and instead of a long all-day walk in the country I’ll just figure out a shorter hike to take, maybe ride on some transportation, walk, then ride on some transportation, and repeat as needed. You did not let yourself get old. I know from experience of getting there myself (now 48, nearly half a century!) that we do not make ourselves get old. Time passes by and does all that work for us. We can, however, make other types of decisions that we can be happy with, like the examples I’ve given you. I know it’s hard to make compromises even with yourself (I’m doing it, though) but I think with a little imagination you can find ways to change plans that can be satisfying.

I saw your post talking about how you got it going in another community. Good for you! Linux still does not play well with laptops. It’s especially hard on the laptop you’re trying to get it working on. The older the hardware, the better the Linux is still the rule of thumb. As far as the rest, also happy for you. Your enthusiasm is contagious.

I’m also a teacher doing the summer thing. I’m so glad for you that your dad had big surgery when you had extra time. It’s so hard during the school year to balance work and life.

I just saw a summarization bot on here make a summary that was longer than the post. Kind of silly.

Agreed. I find a lot of them to be irritating and the rest of them pretty useless and annoying.