As a white person that grew up and still lives in the south, around bigotry of all flavors. Learning the truth about our past is sooooo important. The history of the human race is not usually a particularly pretty history.

But, just like we should want a better life for our kids than we had. We should also want our kids to grow up and become better adults than we were. The only way that will ever happen is if we are honest about the good, and the bad.

While I agree that suicide should never ever ever be encouraged. I don’t think it’s necessarily a mental illness. This person was going to or already had lost everything they had ever known and worked for. They would have been a pariah in their town. They very likely would have been disowned by family and friends. It’s a little late in life to be starting all over somewhere new. I don’t think it’s crazy to contemplate unconventional exit strategies in that case.

Source: I am from small rural town Alabama.

I also think that we should remove the negative stigma behind suicide. After all, even bringing it up with a mental health professional can and will get you essentially arrested for 48 to 72 hours which discourages people from seeking help.

This is a god damn shame. This poor person probably could have had a much happier life if only they knew how. Knew how to escape the life that everyone else expected of them.

Instead it sounds like this poor soul spent their entire life supporting the very cause of their suffering. A lot of people would be happy to point out the irony in the double life he led. But, it’s hard to walk away from a life that’s all you’ve ever known.

Every time I see this picture people say that it is metamorphosis. I have a paperback copy and this isn’t in it. Likewise, I went to nhentai.net and double checked. Still not in it. What is this from? Is there a sequel or prequel that I am not aware of?

Am I overlooking it somewhere?

So, here is a story I like to share about learning kindness and empathy.

A little background. I grew up in a poor city right outside Birmingham, Al. All the kids I grew up with including myself had racist, homophobic parents. In return all the kids I grew up with including me were also racist and homophobic. When you grow up where I did with a silent generation dad and greatest generation grandparents from rural Alabama. You aren’t taught “hate”. You’re taught the way it’s always been.

I dropped out of school in the 9th grade. I got my GED and graduated college, but while I was working on all that I worked at Walmart when I was 16. I dated a girl that worked there and when we broke up I started dating a different girl that worked there a few days later.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and this loud and flamboyant twink named Joe that was our age tells my ex and current girlfriends that I dated them both at the same time. Then proceeded to drive both of them to my house where both chicks came in my house and yelled at me for a bit. When I walked outside I saw Joe in the driver seat of one of the girls car.

I figured that they probably met up at Walmart and I was going to beat the shit out of Joe. So, I jumped in my car and raced to Walmart. When they pulled up for Joe to get his car. I was sitting on the trunk of Joe’s car waiting. Fortunately, they left, and what follows is not great, but was necessary for me to learn a lesson.

After they left I was so angry that I used my key to carve the F slur so big that it took up Joes entire trunk lid. Nothing came of it for a few days. Then my phone rang. I can remember it like yesterday. A grown man asked for my name. I said I was he. He said that his name was Ronnie. (If you’ve read my other stuff this isn’t the same Ronnie that killed people.)

Anyway, Ronnie explained that he was Joe’s boyfriend. He told me that what I had done didn’t hurt Joe. He explained that he (Ronnie) was going to have to pay to have the trunk fixed. He appealed to my empathy, but he also treated me like a man. Could/should he have called the cops? Absolutely, but instead he decided to approach me like a man and explain the situation.

After he was done. I told him that I’d have to make payments, but that I’d pay to fix Joes car. Ronnie said that was fine. He invited me over for dinner and said that we’d discuss the terms. I agreed.

I don’t remember how much he said it would be, but I know that I paid him installments until it was paid for. During that time I got to know Ronnie really well. He had a monster truck and collected muscle cars. He had 2 Shih Tzus. He was much older than Joe and I. His previous partner had been someone important with State Farm insurance, but had died back in the 80s (this was mid 90s) and left Ronnie money and a house.

All this happened when my dad and I weren’t getting along. I still remember the first time I called Ronnie and asked if I could stay the night. He said yes without hesitation. I got there and he told me the ground rules. He said that I was always allowed at his house, but personal items like toothbrush, razors, and stuff like that were off limits. He said DO NOT MESS WITH THEM.

I was young not stupid. I had seen the real world. I knew that he was probably HIV positive. It wasn’t long before he and Joe broke up. Ronnie started calling on me. Ronnie lived in the country. I lived between the country and big city. He would call and say hey a couple of my friends are sick and I need to take them some food. Would you ride with me.

Anyway, Ronnie was the first person that I had actually interacted with where I had been forced to face someone that I had been lead to believe was different to me. Ronnie gave me a safe place to be when I wasn’t getting along with my dad. I can remember my “friends” at the time making fun of me for hanging out with a gay dude. I didn’t care.

Ronnie taught me more about being a man than my own father did. When he should have just called the cops he took the time to turn hatred into a teachable moment.

If you’re wondering what happened to Ronnie. I hung out with him fairly regularly until I got on drugs really bad. After my family deserted me. I deserted my friends because I couldn’t live with them hating me for what I had become.

After I got clean I started trying to pick up where I left off. I called all of the good friends I could think of. So, I called Ronnie. A man answered and I asked if Ronnie was there. He quickly asked who I was, and I explained that I was a friend. He said that he was Ronnie’s brother and Ronnie had passed away a few years earlier due to complications from HIV. He said that he got some kind of dementia.

We talked about 2 hours. I told him about how Ronnie had taught me about empathy. He said Ronnie had done the same for him. Ronnie was one of the greatest men I’ve ever known.

Apple has gotten terrible. If i don’t proofread it will change words to what it thinks they should be without prompting me. Also, editing sentences on iOS sucks. They changed that too. That way after they fuck up my sentence it’s also way harder to go back and fix it.

All you need to know about US prisons comes down to just 4 little words. Don’t drop the soap. I say this every single time US prisons are brought up. Where else is the proper response essentially don’t get raped? It’s used as a joke here in the US. This is the advice that friends and family give to people they care about that are going into prison.

We should do better.

Most of these people think that a book from 2000 years ago has valid ideas for today’s world. So, 180 isn’t much of a stretch at all.

Well, it’s because they have to prepare us for prison as an adult. Wait until you find out that American schools are largely funded by property taxes. Which means rich neighborhoods that pay more in property taxes have generally way better schools than poor neighborhoods.

The United States is like a villain from a scooby doo episode. In every episode the “monster” is a person of color, or illegal immigrant, or an LGBTQ person. But when they catch the “monster” and pull its mask off. It’s old man US government every god damn time.

I have a 3080 ti, and a 12700k, and 32 gigs of ddr5, and a 2 terabyte ssd. It runs great for me. I don’t understand the problem. /s

As an older millennial this is the most amazing description of this gum that I wish I would have thought of.

So, I have very limited experience with 2 of them. One was Banditos. I was the bouncer at a dive bar on the weekends as a second job. This was 20 years ago. Banditos started hanging out there, and honestly they were pretty cool. They were loud, and drank a lot, but they never caused me any problems, and helped me solve a couple of problems in my time there. Some of them were local FOP which seems a little gross, but they never bothered me.

The other was black pistons I think? I don’t remember. My friends dad was in it, and she and I got to hang out at their clubhouse some. That was almost exactly like you would think it was.

I only hung out there like 2 or 3 times with her. It was a shitty looking trap house in the hood. There was Nazi memorabilia all over the place. There was a bar in the middle of the living room. Middle aged white dudes drunk and geeked on meth. Lots of guns.

One night one of the dudes showed up with a black crackhead prostitute from the neighborhood. I know she was from the neighborhood because she said she had been there a few times before, and I heard them talking about “seeing her around”. Anyway, she was running around naked half the night doing Hitler salutes with those chuckle-fucks. Drinking whiskey, and smoking, probably meth. The whole situation was incredibly off putting.

I’ve taken my fair share of DXM. The last time I did it I was hanging out with this guy. We were looking for roll or acid or both. I told him that I could make him the most fucked up he’s ever been and it’s over the counter. He called me a liar and told me to prove it.

We get back to my house and each eat 32 pills. That was 2 boxes of medicine. About three hours later. This full grown man approached me with the face of a child that had just witnessed all the horrors of WWI, and said Muhammad I’ve never been this fucked up before.

I said “I told you so. I then told him that the last time I did this I swore I’d never do it again, but I had made a special concession just for him.

We laid in my side yard in complete silence for what felt like an eternity. Staring at the stars. Only to look at a watch and realize that only 20 mins had passed.

It took 2 days to get back to normal. He didn’t hang out with me very much after that. Also, those pills had a sugar coating. The same coating name brand advil have. To this day my body won’t let me swallow anything with that sugar coating on it. I tried to take some Advil, and gagged so hard I shot the pill into my sinuses.

I know that doesn’t answer your question, but I wanted to share.

That’s a good idea. See, the chick has the butterfly tramp stamp that is very close to the one in metamorphosis. She also has blond hair which doesn’t happen until halfway through, and it looks like the chick. But, i can’t find that scene anywhere.

Alas, I was late to the game. I got my copy, and only 2 or 3 weeks later I went to order a copy for a friend, and it was out of stock. Haven’t checked back since.

It depends on where you live. I grew up in a poor part of Alabama. At 15 I could get you almost anything you wanted. Hell, the parents of some of the kids I grew up with were crack heads.

I remember I was hanging with a kid named Ronnie. Ronnie’s mom was named Connie, and a crack head. We were chillin with his bedroom window open when we heard “psssst hey. Psssssst hey Connie.” We looked out the window and saw one of our other friends moms fiendin. When she saw us she went “Hey Ronnie come here and give me a hug!” It was uncomfortable to say the least.

Ronnie is now serving life in Georgia. He tortured a man to death for the combination to his safe. Being a crackhead and a parent fucks your kids up. There were 3 kids in that house and all of them are varying degrees of fucked.

The real joke is that they don’t even care about Americans regardless of skin color. Sure, they pander to white America. That’s because there’s a lot of them, and they’re dumb enough to fall for it. But republicans don’t care about you or me. I would also like to add that neither do democrats, but at least democrats aren’t actively trying to kill marginalized people. So, I guess they are the best of a bad situation.

As an Alabamian I came here to shit on Alabama. But you guys have already said everything I could say, and said it better. Probably because of my shitty Alabama education. Anyway, it makes me happy that someone is seeing what kind of nonsense goes on here.

I just hate that the song about “rich men north of Richmond” talks shit about poor people on welfare. If he’d just left that out. I could get on board.

I learned it from yoooouuu daddy Trump!!!!

I wipe captain Morgan style. Standing up, with one foot up on the toilet seat. That way I can scrape up in there.

Hell, for that matter. I was going to let him borrow it. But my wife vetoed the idea. She was like “you aren’t giving away our copy of metamorphosis.

I didn’t mind the M, but F, and L can fucken suck it.

Check it out the spine isn’t even creased.

Edit: that’s not actually the spine. That’s a dust jacket.

Is this China’s final warning?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%27s_final_warning

Ok here are some tips I have collected over the years.

I won’t spend much time in shaving because other people have done a better job. I jus always go with the grain. That keeps bumps down for me.

Here is probably my best tip that I tell people. If you have some extra pounds this will be more important, but it also helps thin people feel “clean” all day. A stripe of antiperspirant down each side of the V on either side of the genital area, also a little on your taint. If you have a few extra pounds a little antiperspirant on the inside of your thighs we’ll keep them from getting irritated from walking long distances. I’ve been fat and skinny. There’s nothing worse than chapped thighs.

One that I personally love. Teach yourself to do gel nails. You’ll need a UV lamp, but they are like $15 on eBay. The cool thing about gel nails is that it’s a lot harder to damage than regular nail polish. So, it’s a good beginner polish because you don’t have to be as gentle with it. Plus in my opinion it’s easier to use. Just watch some YouTube videos.

Makeup is hard, don’t get frustrated if it doesn’t go the way you expect the first time, or the second. But, in my experience big makeup stores are super helpful in helping you match skin tones and picking out appropriate starter makeup. I’m talking places like Sephora.

I’ll try and think of some more.

I put air tags on all my shit. I have an air tag on my wallet. I have an air tag on my keys. I even hid an air tag in my pc so that if it’s ever stolen I can hopefully track it down. I have an air tag on my tv remote.

They have literally changed my life. Living with 3 other people. One of which is severely autistic and will pick up things and set them down under the sofa or some such nonsense. I spend a lot less time being angry. Air tags are the best thing that Apple ever invented.

iPhone is ok, but I miss my HTC touch pro 2. Apple Watch is superfluous junk. Air pods pro? Pshhhhhh whatever! Air tags, they will change your fucking life man.

As someone that was a serious opiate addict I always look at stuff like this with suspicion. Fentanyl gummy bears aren’t a prescription thing as far as I know. So that means that someone presumably made them on purpose. But why? There are far better ways to do fentanyl than putting it on gummy bears. This headline makes no sense.

They were probably sugar free gummies and the kids got the explosive poopies.

I know it was Hep C, but Hep C usually takes a LOOOOONNGG time to kill ya. Like, at least 20 years. Even then you die of cancer or cirrhosis of the liver. As far back as the 80’s they had interferon which isn’t perfect, but between all the factors she still would have been fairly unlucky to die from Hep C. Especially so young.

That’s some good info I didn’t see elsewhere. Man this is way more complicated than I expected.

Here in Alabama we make javelins. It has ben a pretty big boost to our economy. At least that’s what the papers tell me.

So, you’re close but wrong country. Russia tried to get rid of religion but failed. The Russian Orthodox Church just kind of became part of the government. That’s why you see the priests blessing Russian weapons and stuff.

China on the other hand did get rid of religion pretty successfully. The reason communism strives to get rid of religion is because when people aren’t arguing over who’s imaginary supernatural friend loves his people more. It’s easier to get them to agree on things.

Now, I’m not going to pretend that this is a perfect plan. After all successfully getting rid of religion comes with a whole new set of pitfalls. But, I personally think the pros outweigh the cons.

Sir/madam, you just touched on one of the most important rules for living a happy life. I like to call it “See something? No you didn’t.”

I grew up and primarily have lived in the south, and my dad and I would go out in the woods when I was a kid. From my very first trip he told me “Son, while we’re out in them woods. If you see someone else out there, just turn around and go back the other way. Don’t say nothin, don’t wave, just go the other way.”

To this day I live by that. My partner “it sounds like the neighbors are building something out of wood at 2am.” Me “not my problem”. Partner “I think I heard gunshots.” Me “wake me up when you hear screaming.”

I paid for it too. I mean fuck man. I’ve been using winrar for almost 30 years. That’s more than I can say for most things in my life. I figured it was the least I could do.

That’s a good approach. So many things are left out and passed over. Unfortunately it’s up to us as parents to fill in the gaps. Here’s my own personal brush with infamy.

I live and grew up in Birmingham, Al. In school we had a page or 2 about the civil rights movement. We learned about Bull Connor, and the water cannons, and the dogs. We learned about Fred Shuttlesworth and Rosa Parks. That was about it.

I was in my 30’s when I learned that my uncle was the last man to arrest Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. before he was assassinated. My family didn’t talk about it. My school didn’t talk about it, and it made me realize just how much of our lesson on that subject had been glossed over.

Since my uncle lived longer than King. My uncle got to say in interviews much later that “he knew he was in the presence of greatness” and “I didn’t want to arrest him but I had to”. He may have fooled someone with that nonsense. But, I know that generation of my family used the n-word daily till they died.

A history that’s as truthful as possible is super important. It doesn’t matter who it embarrasses, or upsets, because it’s already happened. We can’t change it, but we can try not to do it again.

Here’s my thing. I think most of us here in the US are still adjusting to post-pandemic America. Used to Walmart and CVS and or Walgreens stayed open 24/7. Not anymore. Used to there was this thing called “fast food”. Now they can’t hire enough people to do the “fast” part.

The other day. I went to a fast food place called cookout. They got my order wrong and I was half way home before I realized it. So, I go back and after waiting 5 minutes no one comes to see what’s up. I get someone’s attention and ask to speak to the manager.

I WAIT 35 MORE MINUTES! Before I dump all the condiments in the trash steal 2 fixtures and a booster seat, and walk out the door. Then the manager wants to come talk to me. I told him “we good homie don’t you worry about it”, as I’m loading the condiment dividers and booster seat into my car. He try’s to explain that he can’t hire enough people, and he’s working the grill. I just repeated that we straight and drove off.

I won’t cuss and yell at fast food workers, because they don’t get paid enough to deal with that. But I will steal a bunch of stuff, because my time ain’t free either.

I know right. I’ve been really thinking about going Samsung for my next phone. Honestly, I hate this iPhone so much.

China is super racist, but Han Chinese men are being offered money to marry Uyghur women. Ya know to expedite that whole genocide thing. So, I could see them doing that.

Interesting! I’ll keep that knowledge somewhere. I have psoriasis. So, thanks!

I said pretty much the same thing to my partner the other day. This poor kid is a god damned genius, and now he’s just wasted potential. I can think of several ways to redirect that energy for the good of mankind and I’m an idiot. So for his potential to be wasted like this seems malicious to me.