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Do you think you'll be okay with cheese? Because my sibling has an amaaaaazing vegetarian lasagne recipe that I could give you, but there's a lot of cheese in it. Also, mushrooms and I think spinach? I'll need to double check it.

I can ask my cousin for recipes too if you want any.

@HannahB - I think it's a personal thing. You're just deciding what you're going to do yourself, so nobody should judge you or get offended by that. Personally I enjoy meat...I wish that animals were treated better on commercial farms, and I think they're being pressured to start treating their animals better, but I also understand how it got to become so industrialized, so that meat can be made as cheaply as possible for the masses. I know here there's such things as free-range, antibiotic-free, and organic meat that comes from animals that are more naturally raised. If you're primarily considering going vegan for that reason, that's an alternative you might want to look into.

I think that you should do what you feel is right for you, though.

In a similar vein, just as I was starting to type this message, our pastor stopped by and visited. Last December my mom wanted to go to church on Sunday mornings but didn't want to go alone, so I offered to take her. I'm not religious (though I identify more as agnostic these days than atheist as I did when I was younger), but I don't mind taking her, and I enjoy listening to the sermons...he gives them in a way that they're easy to understand and often has practice applications. But part of his visit was to talk to me about being saved, and we had a good and respectful discussion about it. As I expressed though, even if I concede that Jesus died for our sins and that the Bible is the word of God, I'd still have to feel it personally in order to really have faith. Otherwise I'd feel like I was going through the motions, and not that I had a real faith (I don't believe most Christians have a real faith, btw). I was pleased that he could have that conversation without trying to pressure or force it on someone though, that's a good thing.

But my point is that it goes back to that feeling of what you feel is right for you. In my experience, when you're considering a change to your identity or to who you are, it's better to go with what you feel than what you think. It's easier, and turns out to usually be the right course of action cause you haven't overthought the thing to death.

I joined a local church a while ago, as a bunch of my good friends attend it. I really didn't expect to actually believe in anything that would be preached, but I quite enjoyed the events they planned and thoroughly enjoyed debating stuff with the people there, as they were all super welcoming and non-judgmental. Not at all the sanctimonious types people often expect to encounter. I told them right from the get-go about my agnostic views, and they didn't try to convert me, they didn't preach to me and they didn't treat me any differently from anyone else.

This past Sunday, I decided to actually give the whole religion thing a shot again, so I'll keep you all posted.

No, this doesn't mean anything about me has changed. I'm still super damn chilled, I am still as open minded as ever, and I am still going to swear like a sailor.

I do feel truly happy, and it may just be because of the awesome people I keep meeting and the extensive support group that has started to form around me, but who knows. They really helped me through the grieving process recently, too.

Spoiler

A beautiful night in the wilds of Skyrim tonight. Goodnight, everybody!

I'm back from my trip. It's been two years since I first applied for the position of Inspector at the US Postal Inspection Service, and I made it to the second to last step, but unfortunately I didn't pass. I was by far the youngest candidate in my testing group, though, so that made me feel a bit better.

And on the upside, I got to explore DC for a few hours before my flight yesterday, so that was pretty cool. It was only my second time going there (I got to go back in middle school when my grandfather was buried in Arlington), so it was interesting seeing everything through my grownup eyes. All of the buildings, memorials, and museums around the National Mall are really impressive (and most have free admission, too). Would definitely recommend if you haven't gone before.

So it was essentially a free trip to DC for me (besides the Lyfts to/from the airport), so I can't really complain.

And as they say, always look on the bright side of life.

We recently started an unofficial thing in my department at work where we can work remotely one day a week, so I've been working from home on Fridays, and so far I think it's been a success. I'm actually able to get more done than when I'm in the office, because I can focus better and not be interpreted by other people. I was chatting with my boss the other day about what it'd be like if we could work remotely full-time...being able to move out of the state and start a new life while still keeping a steady income would be wonderful.

Over the last year I've gathered a lot of ideas about what kind of place I'd love to live in. I'm thinking tiny/small houses, off the grid living, and a lot of modern tech mixed in with traditional stuff. Just this morning I saw a cobbler on a cooking show, and thought it'd be great to have a place with berry bushes, so you could pick berries in the summer, make things like cobblers, and can/store them in the winter. lol, who does that anymore? But I think it'd be fun and kinda a change of pace from modern living.

And buying a cobbler from the store is expensive af anyways.


Hey @Gerrick, sorry you didn't pass, but it sounds like you got really far for your age, so hopefully you can try again later on. Or you may find something else that you like even better. Either way, I'm sure you'll end up with something great.

Just this morning I saw a cobbler on a cooking show, and thought it'd be great to have a place with berry bushes, so you could pick berries in the summer

When I was a kid my family had raspberries growing along one of our fences. It was amazing!

I just went back and read this glorious Spyfall game where everyone was a spy, and to this day I'm still proud I managed to convince @Pengu I was not a spy. This was easily one of the best games I've played here.

I've come to the realization that I need things in life to be excited about, to counter the things in life that I worry about because of where I live and stuff. Right now I'm excited about growing Clickwar into a more legit game that I think could become a major part of Wintreath, and I've started planning a vacation for this summer.

When I was a kid my family had raspberries growing along one of our fences. It was amazing!

When I was a kid, we'd go up to my father's trailer (which he rented out at the time, we lived in it later on) and picked blackberries. It was fun...definitely something I'd like to be able to do again.

I wonder why it is that at certain times our community becomes less active, such as now, while other communities seem to keep on chugging, like Aukumnia? My hypothesis is that our community consists of older people, who are less likely to have free time to start out with so any little thing makes people go inactive. I also think that our community tends to be more serious-minded, and that limits the light-hearted banter that takes place in many other regions.

Either way, things have been pretty slow around here lately...I never like these lulls. =/

I wonder why it is that at certain times our community becomes less active, such as now, while other communities seem to keep on chugging, like Aukumnia? My hypothesis is that our community consists of older people, who are less likely to have free time to start out with so any little thing makes people go inactive. I also think that our community tends to be more serious-minded, and that limits the light-hearted banter that takes place in many other regions.

Either way, things have been pretty slow around here lately...I never like these lulls. =/

I'm just fickle.

I'm just fickle.

lol, but maybe if there was more activity you wouldn't be!

Well, I like activity as much as the next guy, it just seems to me that a lot of it has transferred to the Discord.

Well, I like activity as much as the next guy, it just seems to me that a lot of it has transferred to the Discord.

But activity on Discord is down too from March.

When I was chatting in the Discord last night, I realized that a lot of the issue with government activity is that some people aren't setting aside dedicated time to tackle their responsibilities. I don't think it's intentional, because I was in the same boat. It's easy to get busy and overwhelmed with other things and get in the mindset that you just don't have the time, but when I started dedicating time to keep on top of things in Wintreath, I was surprised at how little real time and effort that took on most days.

For me, I try to dedicate an hour a day, and that includes answering forum posts, PMs, and NS telegrams plus making an effort to be active on the RMB. It doesn't include anything new I'm doing or development work, but I'm finding it's a good amount of time for me to keep on top of things. Sometimes it takes longer, but usually it doesn't even take that long, and if I actually do miss a day for some reason, it's not hard to get caught up. Of course, that's for me as Monarch and Founder. I imagine that for a member of the UH, 15 minutes would be fine to check if any legislation needs to be replied to or voted on, and for Cabinet members 30 minutes would be good for keeping on top of Cabinet issues and working toward anything they need to accomplish for the term.

Well, I like activity as much as the next guy, it just seems to me that a lot of it has transferred to the Discord.

I've been saying for a while now that Discord devalues forum activity. Even wrote an article about it in TRT.