This post is so unrealistic SMDH

I was showing my date’s parents where my beard stops and my peach fuzz starts, which was around my mouth (that made sense in context, a bunch of people were there and we were talking about high schoolers growing beards).

To demonstrate this I put my fingers in a v-shape around my mouth and accidentally made the universal sign of eating pussy.

Seconding Miniflux! It’s my main RSS reader. I pay for the hosted version, it’s super cheap and works great. And since it’s simple HTML I can write Greasemonkey scripts to customize it a bit.

actually did find partners who loved them for their authentic selves, and most people have figured this out and I desperately need to touch grass.

This was my experience. I don’t think I’ve ever dated a woman who wanted extremely traditional gender roles. As far as I could tell they mostly wanted equal partnerships like you are describing. And after 12 years of marriage I can tell you my wife and I definitely don’t fall into stereotypical roles.

I did date one woman for a year and a half who had some traditional tendencies, but only some. She did not want a breadwinner to support her and did not mind men showing emotion. On the other hand, she definitely subscribed it to the idea that men are dumb pigs who need to be managed by their wives, and she seemed to think it was normal for a marriage to be a constant low-grade “battle of the sexes” — she kept telling me these stories about her parents’ conflicts that she thought were cute but I thought were kind of horrifying. I broke up with her for a few reasons but that was definitely one of them. But my point is everyone is an individual and she had some traditional tendencies and some not traditional tendencies. Also I got to know her and had fun dating and then eventually broke up because I didn’t think we were a good match. It was fine, and I learned a lot about myself along the way.

Now, if you’re on your guard all the time worrying that a woman wants traditional gender roles I bet you can find reasons to support that hypothesis. So don’t go looking for it. Instead, go on some dates and just get to know the other person as a person.

Those people who tell you all women want a certain thing are wrong. They might be coming from a particular subculture where it’s true, and if you are constantly meeting women who only want traditional gender roles then maybe you need to look at who you’re asking out and how you are meeting them. Some of the people who are telling you these stories are knowingly lying because saying “everything sucks and you can pay me for a solution” is a very profitable venture. Other people wish traditional gender roles were the norm and so they’re sort of LARPing it online.

Also, remember that going on a couple of dates is not a lifelong commitment. You’re getting to know each other. Have fun with it. If you don’t like her once you get to know her better, move on. The more you go on dates the easier it gets. Go touch some grass and go touch some ass (consensually).

https://www.metafilter.com/ hasn’t changed much.

Fun fact: there are plenty of ways in Jiu-Jitsu to break your own neck. Possibly more ways than there are for other people to break your neck.

At 41 I switched to Jiu-Jitsu which isn’t any safer but is even more fun. Unsure why so many of us old guys do BJJ but it’s a thing.

This is very true. Linux is great if you just want to check email, or if you want to compile your kernel or dig into incredibly esoteric config files. But if you want to do something between those 2 extremes, the learning curve is extremely steep. My Windows box and Mac Mini both do all the things I want them to, but my Linux box keeps breaking and I don’t trust it with anything important. I usually try to do things on Linux first, but when it inevitably breaks I switch over to Mac and get it done in a tenth of the time.

I’m sure I could get my Linux box to do everything I want. I’m busy and I don’t want to fight with it and spend all my time learning about its eccentricities. I want to point and click and occasionally modify a text file.