I was talking to my wife about the feeling of underachieving relative to unrealistic childhood goals, and she mentioned that she never thought she was smart or special enough as a child to dream of being THE anything. Like she wanted to work in science, but never took that to mean that she wanted to be THE one to get famous curing cancer or writing a Malcom Gladwell-type book or running her own lab.

I, of course, think she is the most special genius I know, and I think she'd do a great job in any of those situations, but the depressingly realistic expectations she set out of lower self-confidence as a kid have now served her well in terms of job and life satisfaction. It made me sad to hear and angry at her parents for not communicating that she was and is exceptional, but I am also sad and angry that I am not the next Bob Dylan with a universal acceptance of my genius and no need to do anything but write poetry and receive accolades. At the same time, I'd hate to actually live on the road and/or have the life of most ultra-famous writers, but I still feel like I've betrayed my childhood potential by not doing so and by being unremarkable.

Hard to say if that disappointment is worse than growing up without being told you even could achieve something like that. My wife is healthy now, but had a lot of shit she had to overcome in her childhood and adult mental health journeys, and while/since I have as well, I don't think we'll ever get answers about every different thing that affects our current and past contentedness. So I am just left with the contradictory disappointments of having failed to live up to grand self-determined goals and that no one ever told my wife she could set hers like the incredible person, thinker, and worker she is--even knowing that just may have led to her feeling my current disappointment in place of any she felt as a child.

Long and complicated, no resolution, it's just been weird to see and think about our two very different experiences.

This actually makes me laugh pretty good. Side of the neck is an insane place for it, but the joke lands perfectly and rewards rereads. 9/10 humor, 0/10 decision-making.

Central America is in North America

I've received in-patient care, overnight studies, emergency procedures, and much more in Spain without ever paying a dollar in copays or fees, and I've never waited more than 2 weeks for non-urgent care or an hour for urgent care.

My taxes are $600/month total in Madrid. Given that I have epilepsy, my insurance alone in the US was $490/month, AND I paid more in taxes ($1100/month).

So, yes, universal healthcare isn't "free," and it's supported by taxes. And still, Americans are taxed more AND have to pay for insurance? And then you still have to pay copays? I don't think "dur dur me taxes!" is actually the strong argument you think it is. And wait times are no longer (or in fact are shorter) in many countries with universal healthcare. But you know what's longer? Life expectancies.

Ok but LA sucks for reasons that have nothing to do with what I want from a city and everything to do with what everyone wants from a city: walkability, affordability, good roads/traffic and infrastructure, good vibes, authenticity, public transit, and people who don't suck.

Even people who are from LA and say "we have all that and I love LA" only mean "I love my neighborhood in LA, which is a 90 minute drive from the 7 other malignancies of highway sprawl that also call themselves LA."

Also probably since she isn't a rapist making aggressively bigoted remarks every single day. Or a bunch of other things...

And I'd be more likely to vote for the one who actually went to prison somehow.

Definitely a shitpost and a whoosh

I don't know who this man is, but his face is too small for his head.

It's actually even more unlikely that they would be able to learn how to talk. This guy's clearly not a very good scientist if he missed that.

Purple line should be inverted. I'm buried in my phone the moment a sex scene comes on while watching a movie with anyone else

I work in marketing, and every client I work with who has a WordPress website is using AI to write a lot of their content. This is going to lead to circularly trained AI for sure.