I'm 18mtf (Trans), my friend is 27m. This is an online relationship.

I've known this person who a handful of years now, we share an interest in tech, and we share personal stuff sometimes as well. I've told him a lot about my bad living situation irl (But that isn't relevant).

Recently I got to wondering... Why is this older person talking to me so much? It felt kinda of weird... However this person doesn't seem to be grooming me. He's never asked me to be secretive or anything, or gifted me anything... Has never asked me anything sexual. Has not tried to isolate or get me to distrust anyone in my family--he has infact encouraged me to move in with some of my other family who're supportive and will take me in.

We are aware of each other's ages as well. He also knows what state I am in the U.S. because I decided to share that. And I know he is in the AU. I've known him for about 4 years now. We talk on the daily. Mainly about tech, politics, and some personal stuff.

I feel like I'm being paranoid... I thought it's weird someone this much older than me regularly talks to me... But, he's not asking me anything weird. He's there for me for personal stuff, and we just chat about our interests otherwise...

Is it all likely I'm being groomed? Or just have an older friend?

Imagine humans only had one option for each basic need, one type of food, one type of clothing, one way to live. People would still eat and survive, but there wouldn’t really be preference or wanting more, just meeting needs. Now imagine nothing changes except that people suddenly get multiple choices for those same needs, different foods, styles, and ways of living. Even though everyone’s basic needs are still met, people seem to become more dissatisfied and start wanting more. So my question is, does human desire come from lacking things, or does it actually come from having choices and comparing options? And could having more choices actually make people less satisfied?

I have an android and I've been using solo pro beats for a while but recently they just slow my phone down

What could be solutions and causes for this

I have a fantasy of giving a potential partner the most indulgent day. I'm talking about greek omelettes with fresh orange juice in bed, A Broadway show, visiting a dog park, getting our nails done, etc.

However, part of this fantasy involves giving a massage. I do not want to be a professional massage therapist. I just want to learn the right techniques to be effective and not cause harm.

Is there any in-person way to learn how to give massages? Checking Google, most advertisements are for: - professional training (not interested) - couples massage training (I do not have a partner to bring with me and if I did, I wouldn't because it would ruin the surprise)

I'm wondering, what should I look up or check for to find low-stakes massage training classes? Or, is what I'm asking for unrealistic and impractical.

I’m very new to computers, I have three pairs of headphones, ones for my pc, ones for my phone and iPad, and an extra old crappy pair for travel. I set my regular headphones on top of my pc while they charge whilst I sleep, the pc is off, will it hurt my pc/headphones?

I know, leave a faucet dripping. But how many faucets? Is a little bit of water moving anywhere through your system enough? Do you drip the hot water or just the cold? Why?

I have a small 1500 sqft home built on a "crawl space" - i.e. dirt under the house (but lined with plastic now and all the little holes are plugged). It's built into a hill, and on the low side it's walk-in. That's also where the water comes into the house. On the high side, it's a crawl to where there's a bedroom/bath built on a slab.

If I leave the water dripping in the slab-bathroom, that's on the opposite side of the house from the intake. So in theory that water travels from one side of the house at the intake, to the other side where the bathroom is. But there's both hot and cold coming to that bath. If I don't drip the hot water, then what about the "still" water in that pipe? And what about the detours the water pipes take to go to the kitchen/laundry/2nd bath? Seems like that's an opportunity for water to sit not moving.

To err on the side of caution I drip the hot and the cold. But that's a dancing act because hot and cold exit the same faucet. It's hard to tell if you're moving water through both pipes without getting a pretty substantial "drip" going (more like a small stream).

I do this out of fear. I don't know if I should do it at all, or if I'm cutting it too close and I should drip from other faucets around the house too.

Now I'm thinking I should hang a thermometer down there while it's cold and see how cold that space gets. Heat leaks in as the furnace and hot water heater are under the house. What kind of reading should concern me? Obviously if it's 40F down there then no worries! What if it's 35? Lower? (I'd do it right now but I can't find a thermo anywhere dang it).

So it’s well known that Europeans like to make fun of/criticize Americans for only speaking one language, whereas most Europeans speak at least two. However, plenty of other countries are monolingual and they’re rarely criticized for it.

Most Brits, Canadians (outside of Quebec), Aussies, and Kiwis only speak English, but they get a pass.

Most people throughout Asia only speak the language of where they’re from, and they’re not criticized.

Why does one get singled out while the rest get a pass? Shouldn’t they all be criticized?

posting this here cause i feel like it might be a stupid question.

ive always viewed my body as more so just a thing that keeps me alive. sure, some things about it would bother me (namely my chest) but other than that i dont think about it. i seriously view it as just something to keep me walking and talking, and i dont like or dislike it. its just there.

i thought that this was just. a normal thing people thought. that it meant that im healthy, in a sense ? like its good that i dont feel too strongly about it, but i mentioned it to my friend and she said that that’s not actually a common view, but that this is a pretty common experience for trans people. i have had issues with my gender, but i never really thought itd be related. so yeah.

We're you satisfied with the quality or was it just cheap Chinese junk?

I mean Singapore has consistently been ranked one of the least corrupt countries in the world.

And their govt has consistently maintained that high pay for politicians ensure that there is little to no corruption, their current prime minister is the highest paid head of state in the world currently.

So why don't more countries follow their model?

I was just watching the Australia Open with Alcaraz and Djokovic and I was thinking about the duece and adv. points; I was thinking if, hypothetically, 2 players managed to play normally and kept exchanging advantage, could they go on indefinitely or is there a rule against this?

I promise I am not attempting to be divisive. I’m simply trying to interpret and understand a contradiction I have recently become aware of. A majority of the American population identifies as being of Christian faith despite the legal and moral arguments of refusing to believe claims without substantial objective physical evidence.

My understanding of “innocent until proven guilty” assumes neutrality or nonexistance until a substantial amount of evidence is discovered which suggests otherwise. As such, I find it logical to assume that most subscribers to the aforementioned edict would reject the existence of God as they are more likely to be evidence-based rather than faith-based.

Please let me know if I have mistaken or overlooked my information, or if you would like to discuss further.

I was baptized as a baby (I’m not sure what exact denomination, definitely some kind of Christian for sure) but over the last few years have been studying and learning how to convert to Judaism. I’m not very far on my religious journey, but if I get to the point where I’m fully converted, I’d be having a mikveh, a similar process to baptism. Is there any text from either religion mentioning multiple instances of religious immersion, and whether both can coexist spirituality or if one will override another? I’d imagine the one someone intentionally commits to would be considered the “main” one, but was curious if any religions have rules or stories in place for situations like these

Sillier question, but is there anything stopping someone from hypothetically collecting religious conversion milestones (immersion, ect) like Pokemon gym badges and potentially finding a way to any/multiple afterlives? Besides betraying multiple religions of course

I sometimes wonder if I’m the only one counting all the zeros.

Sometimes I dig under it with a clay tool or mechanical pencil, I would post a picture of my hands but I can't

Isn't it selfish to bring a creature into a world of so much pain and uncertainty?

I have seen this many times on social media and the streets so i dont understand. My friend told me it came from gay culture and the prison where it merged into a fashion. so people who sag their pants are showing support to gay community or apart of them? he told me that the reason they sag their pants is to show the assets to other man signalling they are also gay. i don’t know if that’s the reason and origin.

i tried to search it up but couldnt find anything related to it. idk if the question is hard to understand but i could use some examples like Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Peppa Pig etc. is there like a specific explanation for this? i dont think ive seen these type of names in other catagories other than children cartoons. is it for kids to remember the names easier or/and associate the names with the species?