Probably should have changed the subject or said goodbye. Arguing with conservatives is exhausting and usually in bad faith. It’s about winning, not exploring a topic together.

Made an update to my post.

I recommend drinking coffee or tea.

Edit: just in case someone sees this, making an update in bold.

Stopped eating breakfast. No eating after 8 pm. Ate 4 ounces of meat, a cup of veggies and a 1/4 cup of some kind of nuts for lunch at noon and dinner at 7 pm every day except Saturdays. For energy/appetite control, I keep a 1/4 of nuts and a cup of baby carrots that I sometimes eat around 5 pm, but not always.

On Saturdays, ate whatever I wanted from 4:30-8 pm which motivated me to get back on diet the next day.

Walk or ran an hour a day. At first during the evenings, then woke up an hour early and did it in peace. Started causing me to go to bed earlier, a good thing.

Lost 70 pounds from March to October of last year. Stopped dieting and gained 40 back to date. Started back on diet this week. We just had our cheat meal and I could already tell the difference in where it felt more special than eating badly all the time. Going to shoot for 80 pounds total.

I’ve been back on diet for almost a week and lost 6 pounds. Likely water weight, not normal rate, but nice to see nonetheless. I’m already feeling better too.

I’m sorry for your loss. Thank you for giving your cat a good life, and I hope they gave you memories to cherish too.

Knowing what I know, I’m not. Mastodon is good, but not the same. There needs to be a publicly run version of Twitter, with same algorithms.

I run. Once I get about a mile in, I can think about these kinds of interactions or generally anything stressful without emotion. It’s like thinking in the shower, but I’m channeling negativity toward a healthy activity. It helps a lot.

From the comfort of my home in the States, Israel’s response to being attacked is disproportionate af and is galvanizing the world against it. Which isn’t great for a nation surrounded by enemies. They need friends and sooner or later even for the US this will be beyond the pale.

Grab a book or sketchpad and go to a restaurant or coffee shop. I don’t interact with anyone. I just eat good food, drink coffee, and absorb the ambiance. It makes me feel a lot less lonely while recharging myself.

I really appreciate the insight. I don’t think those things are worth US maintaining power in that region, but I imagine if I’m in the shoes of a world leader I might see things more ambiguously.

I’m very unhappy with Biden’s stance toward Israel. What strategic significance does that state have that outweighs what increasingly looks like genocide? It has to be something so important yet unpalatable to the voting public that it’s worth appearing to come down on the wrong side of history.

Does anyone have any ideas? Is having a western democracy in the middle east that we can work with worth giving said government carte blanche to exterminate their neighbor?