I have mullvad and also browse certain Reddit communities without an account. Some of the servers still get through. If you’re using US servers I know there are a few of the NY, Atlanta, and Virginia servers I’ve been able to get through on. I’ve also gotten through on some of the West Coast ones but I can’t remember which ones, I only remember the last 3 because they were the last ones I trial and error throughed while actually paying attention to which servers I was connecting to instead of picking at random.

Modded Skyrim in VR is amazing too. I’ve put my Index on and had hours slip by without realizing it. There’s nothing like wandering around Skyrim and killing dragons in VR. And then of course there’s also Half Life Alyx. That game will make you forget you’re in a game…

Thanks! This is all good information and I appreciate you taking the time to write it all out for me!

I did google it, and found a bunch of articles about dual booting with windows 7. I didn’t know if it was still possible or if it would be smart to try for someone with no experience with Linux, so I thought I’d come to a sub where there are tons of people who use Linux daily and could give me some advice about whether I should try it or not. Thanks for the input :)

Thanks! I’ve been interested in Linux for awhile now. I don’t plan on sharing files between the two OSes, and I’m religious about my backups. If I don’t have at least 3 or 4 backups I don’t consider my data backed up :)

I have no idea. I’ve known it for years. All my computer knowledge is self taught so random things I’m fairly knowledgeable on and then there’s things that are common knowledge I’ve never heard of. I’m doing my best out here! I was a sheltered kid who grew up into an adult that doesn’t know anyone tech savvy!

Thank you! This is all good advice. I’ve never actually used a VM but will have to do more research on installing and using one. When you (and everyone else here) say shrink the partition from inside windows, do you mean from within the disk management software? I’m familiar with that, having added extra drives on my other computers. I actually have 3 computers, 2 laptops and a gaming rig I built, but they both have Nvidia GPUs and I’ve heard so many bad things about Nvidia and Linux and I don’t want my first Linux experience to be fighting it out with those. If I like Linux I’ll probably switch one of my other computers over to Linux either entirely or on one of the second drives (both my other computers have 2 different drives).

I missed that update! This is great news!

I’m in the (gradual) process of switching all my stuff from Gmail and Google to Proton mail. I really like the mail client and Proton Drive works better on my computers than Google Drive did, but Proton Drive doesn’t back up my phone yet and I wish they had an office suite like Google does. I don’t put anything important or private on Google docs, but it’s useful to be able to access my textbook notes from any of my computers. I haven’t used the password manager because I’m using Bitwarden, which I really like.

One of the men I’ve most respected and most trusted in my life told me once (at the time a teenager) that when he was in his 20s, women in their 20s were so hot and seeing a barely clothed young woman was so hot. But he said that now that he was in his 40s, women in his 40s were so hot and whenever he looked at a woman in her 20s all he could think of was that she could be his daughter and that he just felt protective and there was nothing hot or attractive about her.

I’m a woman, but when I was in my teens and early 20s guys in their teens and early 20s seemed so attractive and anyone older was not it. Now that I’m in my early 30s I’m so attracted to men in their 30s and I look at teens and guys in their early 20s and they just seem like babies to me. I actually deal with a lot of young guys with my work and they’re all cool people and I love talking to them, but dating them? Ugh, no thank you. They were in elementary school (or younger) when I was graduating high school. So yeah, I think for a lot of people your goalposts move as you move, and that’s not a bad thing. I also am curious as to whether I’ll someday find 60 or 70 year old men hot, but I’ve got a long ways to go.

I would love to consider getting an electric car whenever I can afford a new(er) vehicle. But there’s no way my landlord will let me run an extension cord from my 3rd story apartment around the building and around the pond between my building and the parking lot. It’s sad that an EV would be so great, but its really a mark of privilege to own both in initial affordability and just having the place to park and charge one. Not that it matters, I can’t afford anything other than my 24 year old Honda.

Am a renter and I have an extinguisher provided for me. There is one in my kitchen that I always keep in reach and one right outside my front door. My last apartment did not provide one so I went out and bought one. I’d rather “waste” $40 than lose my belongings. I’d also like to get a fire blanket at some point, should really stop putting it off.

I feel like the Curad bandages I got in the stores always sucked, but I found different ones on Amazon (I know I know, I hate Amazon too) and they’re bigger in comparison to Bandaids, noticeably better quality, and stay on forever if you don’t pull them off.I’ve stuck one on and forgotten about it until over a week later when I realize its still on. I don’t know why they’re different than what I’ve always seen in the stores. I’m also wildly allergic to Band Aid brand adhesive to the point that I have scars shaped like bandages and I’m only very mildly allergic to whatever Curad uses.

Can I make a plug for Curad bandaids? So much better than band aid brand and you can get all the available sizes in fun colors. I may be an adult, but I’d like a bright orange band-aid on my skinned elbow thank you

Thanks for sharing. That’s wild!

How does that work for laying flat? If your stomach sphincter doesn’t close, do you have issues with reflux coming back up if you lay flat/try to sleep too soon after eating, or does the backwash stop it enough that it doesn’t matter your position? Either way, it sounds awful.

I’m both a total skeptic who likes to debunk everything possible and also a firm believer that there are just some weird things in this world. I’ve had a bunch of odd experiences, this one is honestly one of the least creepiest but it’s weird because it happened in broad daylight when my brain was fully turned on, focused, and not in a state that you’d think I’d “make up” something.

So anyway, back when I was an EMT on the ambulance, my partner and I got dispatched to respond to assist state police who were already on scene for a call. The address we were dispatched to was kind of a rural road, and there was a small cluster of houses, a business with a couple outbuildings, and a parking lot for the business in between. Dispatch told us ahead of time that the call was in the houses but per the state police we were supposed to come into the parking lot where they were parked.

My partner is driving, I’m in the passenger seat navigating. It’s the middle of the day, broad daylight, and I wasn’t tired or stressed or anything. We get on scene and my partner pulls the ambulance into the parking lot and we’re both looking around to see where the police are. I catch movement from the outbuildings of the business and very distinctly see the face, upper torso, and right arm of a dark haired man in a dark blue long sleeved shirt casually lean out from between two of the outbuildings of the business, make eye contact with me, and wave his arm in the universal “over here” gesture before leaning back out of sight. I remember saying to my partner “hey, they’re over there, that’s weird, they were supposed to be at the houses not at the business, but whatever” just as a few things happened simultaneously. First, we both realized that the police cruisers were parked on the other side of the parking lot by the houses where they said they’d be, second, it hits me that state police in that state don’t wear dark blue, and third my partner pulled the ambulance to where I had seen the man wave and we both realized that no one was there. There was no possible way anyone could have disappeared that fast as the time from me seeing him to us pulling up was seconds and the outbuildings he had been between were both long with no doors or windows to enter and there was nothing on the ground between them that someone could have ducked under or behind.

I was like ok, well that’s really odd because I definitely saw someone but anyway there’s no one there now so let’s proceed down to where the police actually are. My partner was weirded out and asked if I was feeling ok or seeing things and I had no idea what to say except that I was fine and had no explanation. That was years ago and I still think back to that and wonder wtf I saw because most spooky experiences you hear about are at night or in a creepy location but this was neither of those.

Yeah, I feel like they are better prepared than we give them credit for. The true powers are happy to let the Ya’llqaida run their mouths and wander around in Walmart camo looking ridiculous, because it makes the rest of us discredit them. But the real threat is very strong, very powerful, and very hidden. I was raised conservative Christian. I was raised under a lot of the same beliefs as the fucking cult in Shiny Happy People. I went to camp at one of the universities that they are apparently organizing conservative youth to go into politics with the purpose of taking over. I didn’t know about any of it, I’d never heard the name of that cult before or that any of it was happening, that’s how well it is hidden. I think that they are so good at sliding under the surface that you can be so close to it and never know it’s there meanwhile they are paying off people and getting policies made and controlling the world however they see fit. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

I think it’s a more modern version of what we in EMS call “treat the patient, not the monitor.” AKA, if your patient looks like they’re in distress, is having trouble breathing, etc, but you throw them on the monitor to get vitals and it’s reading that everything is within normal levels, don’t just sit back and be like well clearly you are fine, stop saying you cant breathe because my little lifepack says otherwise. Either the monitor is wrong or they’re doing some hard-core compensation to keep themselves within normal ranges, so let’s treat them and not what the computer says.