If it helps at all, I didn’t spend my younger years drinking, and I’m still considered friends with most of the people I made friends with in my 20’s. However, I almost never see and/or talk them anymore, just because life gets busy, and it becomes harder to maintain contact. It’s still hard for me to find new friends and people to hang out with. I believe that particular struggle is a pretty shared experience regardless of what our younger selves did. It’s entirely possible that even if you didn’t spend your younger days drinking, that “friend circle” would be just as absent as it is now.

I think you’re doing great, and the advice of going to the gym and finding a hobby is great advice for yourself too, that’s how I met the friends I have now. it’s a great way to find people who are busy with life, but have made time in their life for their hobby, and you can share that time with them, and badda bing badda boom, friendship.

Life is experienced only by those who live it. The thing that keeps me not going through with it, is literally FOMO. As much as life is filled with things that suck, and things that I hate, I know there is the very real possibility that something new will come along that I will have regretted not getting to experience.

When I remember the things that I have experienced since the time I tried to kill myself I’m high school, I am glad I didn’t. I would’ve regretted not making the new friends I did, and meeting the love of my life, and all of the the great times I’ve had, even though the shitty times that drove me to the edge, still persisted.

When I remember the things that I have experienced since the time I tried to kill myself in college, I am glad I didn’t. I would’ve seriously regretted missing out on the freedom of independent living, and the parties with friends, and precious memories I’ve made in that time.

When I remembered the time I tried to kill myself after loosing my 3rd job in a row, and hanging on the edge of poverty for just one too many times, I’m glad I didn’t. I would of seriously regretted missing out on buying my first house, and never getting to meet my baby girls.

When I think now, that life is shit, and not worth continuing, I remember those past times and know that it was impossible to know what could’ve been ahead of me, and how glad I am I stuck around to find out. So I keep on struggling through, because I know that there’s bound to be some unkown thing, at some unknown time, that I will definitely want to be around to see.

Oh man, I’ve seen Brazil imperial and it sounded like something my friends and I would love. Kinda seems similar to terraforming mars, which is a game we play when we get the chance, but different in a lot of way that seem like a lot of fun.

I don’t think I could convince my friends to play herdeitos do khan, but I know I would love a game like that.

That a pretty sweet collection you got there, I hope you get a chance to play them. Lol

I think a lot of it comes from thought correlation traps that people easily fall into. The path goes as such

Guys, going into girls bathrooms are creepy sex perverts. -> Guys pretending to be girls going into girls bathrooms are even creepier sex perverts. -> Pedophiles are the creepiest of sex perverts -> Trans people are creepy pedophiles

It’s all baseless assumption and bias, and full of logical fallacy’s but an incredibly easy train of thought that follows normalized cultural perceptions for decades. That’s why people get stuck on those issues, when it really shouldn’t be a big deal at all.

I started my new job a few weeks ago after being unemployed for 6 months. Last week, my 2 year old twins, after I stand by the door and tell them goodbye and that I’m leaving for work, unprompted, started running up to me saying “no daddy, kiss youuuu” and demand I kneel down so they can give me goodbye kisses on each cheek before I leave.

This is now a daily thing. It is the best damn thing in the world.

Sweet! That’s exciting! What games did you get?

I’m running an original steam deck, and I don’t have frame rate issues. I had one cutscene lock up the system, but other than that one hiccup, it’s been running fine on default low settings.

That sounds like heretic talk.

More like draw it with 0 polygons. The SNES used pixel sprites.

Wait I get an office? Fuck man I don’t mind sharing with any one of these people. It beats the hell outta being in a cubicle row surrounded by all of them, which has been my experience so far.