Jesus, man, how much did you do? Mine wears off in, like, 8h

Because riding on their fronts is too intimate.

Hello and thank you for asking the question I have been waiting to answer.

I have been an atheist since I was eleven. At times, I have been viciously critical of organized religion. I have absolutely no tolerance for intolerance of people on the basis of skin colour, ability, or sexual orientation, identity, or preference.

My wife and I wanted to have a child, but we had no family and few friends in a new city. In any case, both my mother and mother-in-law have passed away. If our child was ever going to have much of a community, we knew we would have to build it.

Two years ago I started to go to church. I tried to pick carefully: I was not interested in hearing about how people are lowly sinners, that we need to be saved, that without big-G God we are all screwed, etc., etc. In my case, I settled on the United Church of Canada. I found a local ministry that had undertaken the process of becoming an Affirming Ministry - that is, a ministry that explicitly seeks to atone for past mistreatment of LGBTQ2S+ community members and explicitly welcomes their full participation. I sought this not because I am a member of that community, but because I consider it a sign of a genuine desire to be and do good on the part of the congregation. I am aware that the United Church was involved in residential schools and that the abuse of Indigenous People in such schools was horrible. The UC does not try to hide their involvement. They have apologized and are trying to make amends for the unforgivable things the church was party to - I think the effort to do better is sincere.

When I went to my first service, I was shaking. I brought a notepad and pen to write down all the awful stuff that I expected the Minister to say. People were friendly enough, but they didn’t know I was … an atheist. I thought that when they found out, they would chase me out with torches and pitchforks. I sat through the whole service waiting to hear the minister say something unforgivable so we could get up and leave.

So it’s been two years and this is how it is going: I am an openly atheist member of my church community. I don’t go every week, but I miss it when I don’t go. Everyone was friendly, from the beginning. Nothing changed when I told them I was an atheist. No one has EVER tried to convert me: not the minister, not anybody. Other members of the congregation believe different things than I believe, but we don’t get in each other’s faces about it.

Mostly, we sing and talk about what it means to be a good person. Then we eat biscuits and drink coffee and chat. Religion has never come up outside of service.

Our minister says that god is love - and I think she might mean it literally. Sometimes I genuinely believe that what we are celebrating is nothing more than the idea of people loving each other, caring for each other, and striving to build a better world. We don’t discuss sin or the afterlife. We welcome people of other faiths (and no faith) into our church.

A common theme at our church is the idea that Jesus has no hands but these (please imagine i am gesturing with my hands, and pointing at yours, etc). If the very mention of “Jesus” makes you cringe a little - I am right there with you. However, what I think they mean is that if people want to create a better world, we have to do the work. No one is coming to help us. Our church tries to do some of that good work: we sponsor refugees (currently a muslim family from Afghanistan who come to all the social events but rarely the service), we collect for the foodbank, do outreach to the elderly and disabled. We even organized a counter-protest when a hate group held a rally in our city. Church is a great way to find volunteer opportunities, if you are into that.

On the social side, our latest initiative is a games night. We also do movie screenings and play groups. We are trying to become, in some small way, a third place. You absolutely do NOT have to come to service to attend this events.

As for my family? They love it. It has become an important part of our social life. We know people in our community, and my son gets to meet all sorts - including our new friends who are elderly and disabled. I believe that a way to raise tolerant and empathic kids is to expose them to real diversity.

Not every church is like this, I know. The UC even has an atheist Minister (in Toronto, I believe) - that can’t be common. Maybe your town doesn’t have something like this. If you can’t find this, you could try the Secular Humanist Association. I used to go to their weekly meetings - they never said anything cringe, but they also never did much in the way of helping the community. Also, they don’t sing :(

Edit: i accidentally used a real name haha

The last piece of documentation I wrote was in Jupyter notebook. It looked a bit basic, but it felt wonderful to be in control of my software.

You want trust? Fuck off with Slopilot and start supporting windows 10 again.

Shut up, wired. Do you want them to get better at their jobs?

Well, the robot ships in 2027. ‘Full autonomy’ will be released in 10 years or so when the software improves to the point that it works 90% of the time. Until then, you have to pose it.

This is great.

The other petition i would gladly sign is to stop using MS Azure cloud for all of Canada’s confidential / protected information. Microsoft has already admitted to the EU that they would hand over any country’s data if ordered to do so by the USA - even when that data is stored outside if the US. Microsoft is not that different from Huawei, it turns out

Yeah, could be. I eat to deal with boredom - probably a kind of ‘stimming’

Because I already have enough U.S. politics from the internet

I feel you. I wish i could turn it off.

The egg thing was inspired by an old movie (maybe woody allen). But if the USA were such a vibrating egg, i would call it “Shekky shekky brekky,” or SSB for short.

Please assume that stale carrot man isn’t in office and that the U.S. is currently being a reasonable and humane country that actually stands for democracy, liberty, and freedom.

How absurd. Why not choose a name for the USA that is timely and appropriate? Or, if you’re going to embrace fantasy, why not choose a name for the US that assumes it’s not a country but in fact some variety of small vibrating egg?

Donald Trump’s Personal Toilet

deleted by creator

I lost a bit of weight when I went on ADHD meds

Yeah, I think Smith is a person of integrity. Trump sure hates him, and that is becoming a sure sign of moral character. I would be so ashamed to be someone Trump admired.

both can be true

I’m not sure, just hopeful. i really can’t think of a successor, though. vance is not popular, miller looks and talks like nosferatu, mike johnson could be bullied by milhouse. large marge? she’s out with the real trumpers. who’s left?

Excellent advice.

Regarding windshield wipers: my mechanic advises people not to leave them up. He says that doing this too often can stretch the springs in your wipers, ultimately reducing the downforce that makes them effective. Someone else in the comments mentioned using a vinyl (or cardboard) cover for your windshield - this can be a good timesaver that is kind to your wipers.

I might be getting a little ahead of things here, but Donald Trump. When he finally croaks, MAGA will begin to unravel. All the racism and bigotry and stupidity and ignorance will still be, like, everywhere in the USA. But without Shithead, they will turn on each other. There is no successor, only a bunch a ghouls who are willing to do anything to take his crown. I look forward to watching them tear each other apart.

Hootsuite should be shut down.

Working with Trump’s gestapo is a bad look for Canada. Trump brought us within a hair’s width of WW3 a few days ago threatening to invade an allied country. Now these fucks are trying to make a buck supporting Trump’s fascist state apparatus? Disgusting.