It’s completely arbitrary, and people at the time it became standard were very aware of this. Before, each country had its own prime meridian centered on its capital. In 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Prof. Aronnax tries to find out Captain Nemo’s country of origin by getting him to specify which meridian he uses. I can’t remember how Nemo avoided this, I think it was by using the American prime meridian centered on DC, when it’s very obvious Nemo isn’t American.

We lived in a small starter home until I was four. I have several memories from that house, including at least one birthday and Christmas, as well as my mom’s birthday, I think.

My earliest memory, or at least what I count as my earliest memory, is being pushed around the block in a stroller. I specifically remember being fascinated by the fact that the sidewalk stopped mid-block, just a grass path for maybe 10 yards before the pavement started again near the corner. It was a disruption of expectations. The sidewalk is infinite, the sidewalk is unbroken, the sidewalk is eternal, and somehow it isn’t. I miss those days when every day brought something new and unfathomable to my little mind.

UPDATE:

Some possibly earlier memories:

Being potty trained.

Going to McDonalds and bringing the food home.

Watching my brother or neighbor play the NES port of Burger Time, the very first video game I can remember, either that or Super Mario Bros.

Sneaking out of my room to eat salt straight from the shaker.

Some social worker visiting the house and having me pick up colored plastic circles from the floor. I think it was a vision test.

Hiding behind the couch when Sesame Street came on.

I also have misty dream-like impressions of the zeitgeist of the 80s, songs, TV shows, technology, etc. I think that’s why I like synthwave and cassette futurism. It reminds me of those foggy early memories. Every now and then I’ll run across the name of a show or a description of some early home computer and be like “Oh yeah, that really did exist and wasn’t just the product of my little baby brain.”

I very rarely drink coffee. I figure if it’s just going to get to the point I need it just to function normally then I might as well not start. I’m already a morning person anyway.

The exception is when I take exams. Coffee helps with the ADHD. I’ll usually drink it black since it’s not the drink I’m after it’s the caffeine.

iPhone. The title is a reference to the opening of Super Metroid.

Update 2

This was for a chili cook off my family holds every year. I won.

Check out !selfhosted@lemmy.world for ideas. You could put Docker on it and use it for more than one thing.

Not hitch hiking per se, but when I was living in Mexico for my last semester of college a guy passing in a car saw me out walking and offered to give me a ride. He dropped me off at my destination which was a few blocks away and that was that.

I can’t offer much other than to say I hope things get better for you. My childhood wasn’t that bad in spite of my blindness. Sure I couldn’t drive, but my friends couldn’t either. I didn’t have a job but neither did my peers. It was as I got older and my peers started becoming independent that the resentment started to brew.

I’m also dependent on others including my parents for transportation, which more than anything is why I feel the way I do. I can’t go anywhere without asking them. While they try to be accommodating they have their own schedules and I have to plan around them, so I don’t feel like I have my own life. Asking for help also feels too much like asking for permission.

('Murica) At my age (40s) my parents owned a home in the suburbs. I still live in that house with those same parents so that should tell you the bulk of it.

I feel very resentful that I never got to spread my wings and just be an independent adult away from my parents in the same way my brother and sister have. I think I get along well with my folks and there are financial benefits to living in someone else’s house, but I can’t escape the fact I am their son, and a certain amount of paternalism seeps into our interactions sometimes, despite the fact that I’m the same age my father was when I was 10. I mean things like demanding rather than asking that I attend some family gathering, or insisting I wear more formal clothes to said gathering, etc. It doesn’t come up often, and I think they’re aware of how it makes me feel and try not to do it, but it still hurts when it does.

When I bring this up to them (or many others for that matter) the reaction is usually “Oh but that’s an American thing, wanting to cut loose at 18. It’s common in many cultures for adult children to live with their parents.” But I’m an American with American parents, who grew up watching American media, and I’m surrounded by Americans, so I measure my success vs other Americans, and especially when I was a kid, an adult living with their parents was an object of ridicule.

Of the three of us, my brother is doing the best materially speaking. He owns a house. My sister I don’t think is living paycheck to paycheck, but she isn’t rolling in money either.

Update: It turns out I had more time than I thought to make the chili. Since everyone had a viscerally negative reaction to my use of bloody mary mix, I swapped it out, though I’m not sure my substitution will fare any better, namely V8 juice and tomato paste.

Pretty sure that would boil away without contributing much flavor.

I smite thee in thy countenance from across the internetwork.

I just don’t like beans; it’s the texture. Also there’s a debate in more serious chili circles whether chili ought to have beans. At the end of the day I don’t care as long as I don’t have to eat it.

te golpeo a través de internet!

LOTR is deeper than people give it credit for IMO. Sam’s empathy for the Southron soldier really struck a chord with me. I’m not a vet but I imagine that echoes Tolkien’s experience in the Great War.

I know he rejected attempts to assign allegory to the story, but Gollum is the perfect portrayal of an addict. I want it, but I hate it. It harms me but I need it.

All these multicellular whippersnappers. Back in my day we had one cell and didn’t complain

Flat-faced hairless caudally challenged sweat factory

Hey that’s not blood it’s hemolymph. And I’m an arthropod

Go back to the ocean, you fish with legs! We got here first.

I think they were making a Simpsons reference.

https://youtu.be/ySGVR-EnFZQ

The glory days when every tech generation felt like a rocket-powered slingshot into the future.

“Graphics can’t possibly get any better than this!” —Me about the N64