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Um... hold out your hands like you're holding an imaginary box. But instead of a box, it was a visible, undulating, holographic field, and he'd dip his head into that field. I remember computer displays behind him, it was his specialized work station. A few other shipmates would make fun of him for disconnecting, zoning out so much.

Practically, what voluntarily checking myself into a psych hospital did: was given a temporary case worker who worked for the hospital. She assessed my needs. She called up a social services agency, who came to the hospital to meet me. I was placed in a shelter short term upon discharge, while new case manager worked on finding better temp housing. Was given 3 weeks of meds on discharge. Case manager connected me with an agency that helped me apply for ssi.

Whether you have insurance or not effects the care you receive.

If you voluntarily 5150 yourself, you will not be allowed to buy a gun afterwards.

A good hospital will be mostly safe, group activities, people who come in, teach meditation, mindfulness, art stuff. Made awesome connections. Lot of creative people in psych hospitals.

Bad hospital, 2 days waiting in an overcrowded room, shoved, yelled at by staff, violent patients, screaming, chaos.

In my area, there are crisis stabilization places thatve emerged to fill a void. People who don't need to be hospitalized, but need help. 2 week stay, more freedom of movement, day trips, can bring and keep your laptop, phone, wear normal clothes. But the tone of these places vary depending on who's there. Sometimes, hostile, violent clients who make other people feel unsafe. Week later, different group, Uber chill and zen.

If you have ptsd, are fleeing domestic abuse, or have autism, any of the above places can be challenging.

A dead rat. I found it, gave it funeral rites, put it in a tiny plastic coffin, stored it in the freezer. From time to time, I'd take the coffin out, put it in my bag, carry around with me for several hours, so the rat's soul wouldn't feel lonely. Then back in the freezer. This went on for at least a year.

The last 2 seasons is where it really got good for me. The complex stuff they had to do to interact with aliens so staggeringly different from humans... know discovery gets a lot of hate, but first time I watched it, it was what I always wished star trek would be. More believable, realistic, hazy grey areas, way better special effects, cinematography.

All star trek is good, tho.

I'm old enough to have seen fads, social movements, come and go, technology changing constantly. I've learned one must adapt, things always change, and one should be careful about what one gets used to, what one depends on. Sometimes you have a good thing, then it dissappears. What matters is how you respond. I've learned to prepare for emergencies, what would I do if this is suddenly taken away?

Reddit was where I realized the online world has changed a lot the past 2 or so decades. Back in the day, we'd actively curate, use rss feeds, find a bunch of sites we liked, and create our own customized feeds.

But by the time of reddit, we were no longer doing that work for ourselves. I started to notice a pronounced echo chamber effect, less variety, seeing same stuff over and over.

My biggest fear, given mental health issues, wondering through out life if I'm going insane, seeing things, hallucinating, etc...

I'm terrified that the moment of death, I won't be able to tell if it's real or not. So it will be an infinitely protracted moment, and right now, I may already be in that moment.

Gen x, i think, here. Sex alone does nothing for me. Nudity does nothing. I'm attracted more to people, subtlety, long, slow seductions.

Most sex I see in tv, movies, is ridiculous. Like, 2 people have been flirting for weeks. One day, chance meeting, they kiss. RIGHT THEN, right after the first kiss, they immediately start taking their clothes off.

Seriously, who does that?

Some of the best sex can be if you have your clothes on.

Also, too many fantasy TV shows have characters who can't touch other people cuz demon in them, physically touching someone means they'll lose control, whatever. So they go around miserable, horny, unrequited love and all that. Which to me shows failure of imagination. Sex can be imaginative, creative, so much variety, possibility. Phone sex, mutual self masturbation, why not work those options into the plot?

But no, in movies and TV, its almost always: kiss, clothes come right off, completely naked, always in a bed, orgasm in 5 minutes. Real life is way more complex than that.

Thank you. Knew I'd seen it a sci-fi show, couldn't remember which one.

Now if you can tell me which sci-fi tv show or movie had someone on a spaceship whose job was to listen for, interpret cosmic noise, and he'd do so by immersing his head into a band of sound at his workstation ... been bugging me for weeks.

I dont understand everything about quantum physics. I'm trying to learn. It reminds me about chaos theory and the properties of closed dynamic systems.

Rough analogy. Imagine a small fresh water aquarium. Exact size, always same location. Indoors, water temperature same. Same terrain on the bottom. Only 4 fish, simple behavior.

If you try to predict where a certain fish will be at an exact time, can do so with high accuracy.

But now... aquarium can change size. Freshwater. Saltwater. Sometimes indoors, other times outside. More effected by external forces. And fish behavior is way more complicated. At one temp, fish is a gas. Another temp, solid. Another fish in one setting behaves as particle , other settings, as a wave.

There's also a chaotic element in the aquarium, randomness, chance.

Try to predict the exact physical location of a specific fish at a specific point in time... you can't. What you can do is track patterns, trends over time. Expressed mathematically, you take into account various variables, environmental forces, etc. End result: equation says that a specific fish's location at a specific point in time is a range of possible locations, possible states.

Some people incorrectly think us observing the fish causes it to be at that location. Nope.

This abstract superimposed multiple states thing is a math concept. But this can be confused with a separate tenet of quantum physics, the observer effect.

First double slit experiment was 1800s. Proved light was both particle and wave. In 1900s, scientists recreated this experiment with other elements. Electrons, etc. They realized other elements behaved the same. In one experiment, trying to figure out what was causing this behavior, they built tiny detectors, put it at one of the slits. Electron(?) stopped behaving as a wave, behaved as a particle. They removed the detector, wave behavior resumed.

The observer effect has nothing to do with human observation, human perception. All it means, when something is measured, it can change.

Here in the larger macro world, you've got a beam of wood. Get a tape measure to measure it. Hook metal tab at one end, run tape along wood to other end.

Rough analogy here... when tape measure hooks onto wood edge, a few molecules are shaved off. But it's so infinitesimal. Doesn't matter. But descend into quantum realm, where stuff is way tiny, and the tiny difference becomes huge.

So, with our limited scientific knowledge, we measure stuff, it changes it. Cuz of the clumsiness, imprecision of our instruments.

Semantically, observer effect can mean, anytime 2 things meet, they can effect each other. If a tree falls in the forest and no humans to witness it, it still makes a sound.

No idea if I'm understanding any of this correctly.

East bay here, felt it. Felt like apt building was rolling, shifting. Then followed by a rumbling shaking that lasted less than a minute.

I play Sims, a lot. There are 2 youtube peeps who crack me up continually. Callmekevin, and graystillplays.

Gray would create insane, large scale survivor style scenarios, like what will happen if we lock 100 people in one room. Or. Let's keep 50 sim children trapped underground, give them a bar, dog houses to sleep in, see who survives. He's quick witted, funny as hell, but never crude or vulgar.

Callmekevin... think mental illness, cults, agoraphobia, social isolation. His are sad and hilarious and dark in a different way.