A long long time ago I had two serious knee injuries on the same knee. They warned me after injury and surgery 2 that the day would come when running just would became impossible and I should do everything I could to keep my muscles and health good. I was a runner my whole life, the injuries were not running related, but I could go on a 10 mile run like it was nothing and was pushing 60 miles a week for most of my adult life.

I started noticing some pain issues and swelling and had to stop running cold turkey two years ago. I got some training and hired an expert to craft a program to support my leg. Personal best in squats and deadlifts, it was incredible, looked and felt great for two years. But then, just like that, I went down on one knee to do a pallof press and HOLY MOTHER OF ALL THE GODS OLD AND NEW the pain.

I lost what remained of the cartilage. The muscle atrophy as I've gone through the systems to get a treatment plan and learn what's going on has been brutal. I'm looking at major life changes to hold onto the knee until I'm old enough to warrant one replacement I can die with. And it absolutely devastated me. I drove home and saw a jogger and just got so insanely depressed. I want to go and start doing the exercises I know can help me regain some strength, and support that joint, but I also know an f'up will make it way worse. So I wait for PT and am just getting depressed AF.

I respectfully offer that the Better Business Bureau is not a reputable source. They rate companies and charities in the same way Yelp rates businesses. They offer fees for ratings and the complaint process does absolutely nothing. I'll let you do the google sleuthing on it, but please, do not use them for anything.

Charity Navigator, Candid, and ProPublica offer far better tools for assessing charity. If you're paywalled from navigating some of the tools provided by Candid or other big entities, you can try your local library as they'll sometimes have access.

Finally, the "best" charity in my line of work (I research these things) depends on three things:

1. % of contributions spent on administrative overhead
2. % of revenue spent on ED/CEO compensation
3. Measured program effectiveness in the service area

And you should absolutely read what @frog@beehaw.org has contributed. Clear mission/value/goal/program alignment, transparency, and accountability to the public are, generally, praise worthy organizations. Those that do not provide annual reports, 990s, and other important information on their websites are, in my research/experience, generally doing something questionable if not illegal.

501 is not that easy. Sure, getting nonprofit recognition can be fast. But you are now buried in reporting requirements that put a heavy admin burden on you.

Very broad and simple but: You must register in a state and abide by their rules. Then apply for tax exempt status in that state. Then ask the IRS for your 501c3. Boom. Now what?

You need to setup systems to maintain a balance sheet to complete your 990 or 990ez, keep minutes on record, have a board, board manual, whistle lower and harassment policies....it gets paper heavy fast.

Why? States and the Feds trust you to provide a public service or good, and thus determine you shouldn't pay taxes in exchange. They will absolutely bury you if they find you are violating that trust.

I actually trust you all (like everyone here) to do the right thing and find a solution. My two cents:

-Find another fiscal sponsor as a stop gap to more stable roots. -501c3 can be faster than you expect. But you get complicated with your board governance, required reporting and records keeping, etc. -There are many types 501c orgs (c4, c6, c3) maybe this fits in a 3 or somewhere else. -Incorporation, in any sense, can lead to governance, legal, and fiscal issues that may be beyond volunteer capacity to deal with. -Shit happens, thanks for being transparent.

Ok folks telling me to just get a Linux Distro.

PC Gaming - Enshrouded, Valheim, BG3, Dragon Age: Origins, and No Man's Sky, generally Steam platform. Classics like Caesar III, TIE Fighter.

Work - Data Analysis, Lots of word documents, spreadsheets

Internet - Light browsing, podcast listening, music streaming

What distro and why?

"How much ya gunna pay for what you used to get for free..." Tom Petty, Last DJ. Underrated tune about the demise of free and independent radio and radio DJs.

No Man's Sky is still, in my opinion, trying to make up for what it was on release. It's a great game now. Not my jam as I find it far too expansive for my tastes, but I can't knock it for what it is today. I think it's a work of art and the seamless planet travel is pretty damn cool.

Not going to lie, that title took me a hot minute. It's brilliant on so many levels.

That aside, I'm not surprised at the outcome but also terrified at how insane it is. I want to give into conjecture and vent, but it won't help anyone. It's all just so surreal.

In my role at a Uni, I teach. I learned early on that every class I offer should have a skills workshop. One of them are basic non-phone skills like copying and pasting. Yes. Our youngest generation of college students in non computer sciences struggles with how to understand file structures and keyboard commands like copy and paste because they've never seen them before. So let's stop making technology usefulness a generational thing. It's exposure and education, which applies to everyone.

I highly recommend you watch Netflix's Downfall: The Case Against Boeing. The hostile takeover by McDonnell-Douglas trashed that company. I try to avoid flying in anything post-takeover that carries a Boeing name.

My administrative law professor, eons ago, worked as a supreme court clerk. Very smart person, very kind, and very neutral on anything political so no one could call him a hack when he shared his professional opinion. He halted class one day when the Max situation came up. He spent 3 hours devoted to his experiences with the FAA Regulatory apparatus, Airbus, and Boeing. He remarked about the redesign of the aircraft, engine placement, stalls, and how generational aircraft are inspected and approved. He went on to explain how Boeing had been, for years (since the hostile take over) been trying to push the boundaries of what was, and was not, an acceptable submission to the FAA for a speedy review as an updated generational aircraft, and was getting away with it. The documentary pretty much lays this out but profit margin, competition with Airbus, and hubris = QA/QC shortcuts as well as cost-savings shortcuts in design.

After all the reports came out, which that documentary I linked does an excellent job of detailing, I look back on that class and thank my lucky stars for the time I spent learning from that man. The 737 Max should have been an entirely new aircraft, with more rigorous scrutiny by regulators. But since it was just an "upgrade" it get away with major structural, software, and hydraulics changes without so much as a glance.

I try not to fly on anything from the post-takeover Boeing, and try to get on an Airbus whenever possible. An extra couple of bucks or a few extra layovers is worth it compared to being an example of why Boeing sucks.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. If at the state level, do you mean the State Level Senator or Rep? As it reads, your congressman (i.e., your Federal Rep in DC) wouldn't have much legislative authority in Texas, even if they represent Texas.

Texas at a state level won't do anything, it's gerrymandered into Banana Republic territory. So you can fix gerrymandering (not likely) or bring the federal justice hammer down on the assholes empowering this crap (also not likely).

This is an issue akin to, but not a mirror of, the Jim Crow South, and I mean that administratively. Texas and other states have created three classes of citizen, divided by their ability to give birth (m or f by Texas interpretation) and, unlike Jim Crow, divided again by if they are pregnant or not. This, like Jim Crow, is effecting lives of course, but also commerce, travel, and other systems in ways I can't fathom. Let alone the mental health and health tolls on anyone carrying a baby, as you're immediately guilty until you give a healthy birth or proven innocent if anything happened to go wrong.

Jim Crow suffered blows from federal power via the federal government pursuing commerce clause arguments. Wait. What? Really? Yes, see Heart of Atlanta Motel Inc. v. United States and Katzenbach v. McClung.

That's what it'll take to stop this insanity. But, I fear, the current political climate is not there yet. So much needs to get fixed to get us back to the point where a supreme Court won't cite a pre-USA constitution legal argument as grounds to intervene in a woman's personal health. Crazy people out of politics, gerrymandering addressed, hate and anti democratic speech reinterpreted under the 1st amendment, etc.

It's a long battle but Jim Crow's ultimate destruction, and even Roe v Wades success while it lasted, proves we can do it but we need to learn from the shortcomings and solidify basic human rights in our national identity moving forward.

Coffee? CHECK. Baked bread? CHECK. Not dead? CHECK.

Off to a good start.