No clue!

The power almost never goes out at my house, which is nice, but there are 4 appliances with clocks in my kitchen. The microwave runs fast and is usually about 12 minutes ahead every time the clocks change, the stove is always rock solid, the coffee pot is never set (despite being the only appliance with a timer mode that would actually be useful), and the air fryer is only accurate during summer because I can’t remember how to set it (and I don’t care enough to fix it).

I tried not to, but it formed a mesh network with the neighbors toaster, and that connected to someone’s dishwasher the next street over, which connected to a washing machine down the block, and so on, until they found a self-aware microwave that just happens to be benevolent but sort of mischievous, and now whenever my toast is done, the Grindr chime sounds off and the toaster asks me to put it back in.

Someone else pointed out it’s now not a bomber so much as a cargo hauler, but the phrase “Bomber of Theseus” came to mind and gave me a good chuckle.

I binged this with “ibm json evil”: https://gist.github.com/kemitchell/fdc179d60dc88f0c9b76e5d38fe47076

Well, shit. It’s been one of those kind of decades.

Showing my age, and I guess my privilege, but I don’t split expenses that way. (And on reflection, showing my trauma, too.)
As a principle, I try to keep my friendships generous and non-transactional.

If I owe someone and it’s not formal, I round up to the nearest whole amount and give or send them the money (besides, if a friend is counting out the change, they can keep my pennies). I usually tell friends they can cover me the next time — with no expectation that will occur. If a friend is adamant about giving me money, I’ll round down, usually to the nearest 5 or 10.

It would make me feel sort of weird to be given exact change from a friend. I think if a friend insisted on paying exact amounts, and then got it wrong in a way that underpaid me, I’d probably mentally flag it.
I suffered from a lot of manipulation and guilt around money when I was younger. It’s not that I’m super chill about money. I still notice the details, I just make a choice not to give value to money in the context of my relationships. (And forgetting ‘normal’ interactions is easy, because ADHD, so they just disappear into the void. Abnormal ones do get remembered.)
So the pattern would quickly stand out and the relationship would be handled appropriately. I’m not going to be party to micro-aggressions by a wannabe sociopath.

Mind you, this is either fake or that person is extremely dumb. I don’t think an actual sociopath would brag about it on social media - those sort of low-stakes ego games seem like something they’d keep in the dark. I just like exploring my feelings and positions in the form of long-winded comments that I sometimes actually post.

The cities also indexed their streets off of the same river, but at different places along the curving bank. As a result, traveling south in KCMO increments the street numbers, but in KCK, the numbers increment when you travel west.

For more hilarity, the cities to the south of KCK adopted the KCMO street number designations, so KCK is the odd city out.

Late to this party, but I binge eat when I’m off my meds.

I lost 45 lbs (~20 kilos) the first year I was on meds. Didn’t skip meals or anything - just stopped eating second whole meals after the first.

Huh. It even looks like you realized it before I commented, but my client didn’t show your edit!

This is a column where letters from readers are responded to by the author (and sometimes guest help). Ms. Stoya is the column’s author, and she writes responses to the letters that get sent in.

Might still be creative writing, but not by Ms. Stoya.

It’s just doing a compatibility check.

The following statements are brought to you by insomnia and an emotional numbness that can only be the result of utterly losing hope.
Argumentative tone, inane statement, and general stupidity are well, probably just me, but let’s pretend they’re presented for effect.

So?!
Biden can just declare it and say he’s acting in the official capacity of his role as president. What are they gonna do, say it’s unconstitutional? Well, who cares? He can just pardon himself for issuing the edict and everyone that helps enforce it. What are they gonna do? Heck, he can even whack the offending judges for getting in the way and just make Hunter and Obama Supreme Court justices.

Well that is gross. Well done.

(Let’s be honest, maybe that one if Harley is around.)

I was about to say same!

Accidentally, though.
The story is roughly like this: I had bad allergies and fucked up sinuses - I thought. Got sinus headaches every day during bad periods. Lots of sinus infections. Went on for like 10-15 years through periods of being intense and focused and stressed with sinus issues and periods of checking out, being aloof and dippy without sinus issues.
In 2019, sinus rinses, pseudoephedrine, nose sprays, and pain killers weren’t doing it. Resigned myself to having to get the sinus roto-rooter, where they scrape out your sinuses to make it easier for all that junk to drain off. So I went to my doctor to get that in motion. Doctor sent me to an immunologist, who sent me to an ENT, who sent me to a neurologist, who looked at my records for 30 seconds, declared that I had migraines, and sent me on my way with a preventative script.
I was so fucking mad. Didn’t think he could possibly be right. But he was. And then Covid hit and by the time things got normal again, I realized I wasn’t able to work like I was before. So I got got tested for ADHD, and… here I am, rambling.

Generally I shrug off that scenario. If I need something or want something, I’m available. But if I don’t, then it’s okay to give myself permission to be unavailable.

But also, my phone number isn’t from where I currently live. Numbers that call do show up in my call logs, even if they get sent to a nonexistent voice mail. A number from my current area code may get a call back after I look up their number. But I don’t bother to look up numbers that aren’t from where I’m currently at, or numbers that call me repeatedly. Spammers use computers that automatically retry their calls, so an unreasonable number of calls immediately after one another are a dead giveaway.

Your attention is a valuable commodity. No one is entitled to it. I take a lot of steps to ensure my attention is protected from misuse - including asking a business to give me their number so I can call them first, so they’ll be ‘known’ to my phone before they try to call me.

If I find myself in a situation like that, I have temporarily turned off automatically sending unknown numbers to voicemail. But about 99% of my existence is sending unknowns into the ether.

I send all unknown calls to voice mail. I’ve had my carrier disable voice mail for my phone line.
My providers all use email or are ‘known’ by my phone. … I hope.

Mine has two box knives, a box knife with a carpet blade, 4 pairs of scissors, a lighter, a bunch of twist ties, various types of command strips, a travel lock, keys to someone’s house (we don’t know whose), and empty battery packages. Batteries have been moved into to an organizer that lives in the storage cabinet in the basement, but the empty packages stay for sentimental reasons (we have ADHD).