All genders can pee in the parking lot

Whew what a whirlwind I’ve had leading up to this while intending to play on deck

I have a hard time imagining making an argument where alcohol and cigarettes are legal and weed is not. In terms of harm it does to people acutely and over time. I understand the position of “nothing like that should be legal” and “everything should be legal” even though I disagree. But I think if you choose one, weed might be the least problematic?

No, it’s not easy to test for driving. But alcohol is and TONS of drunk driving incidents happen still. I think that’s more a function of not having non-driving options to socialize over alcohol.

I’ve got the closest thing to a software engineering job I’ve ever had and it’s similarly miserable. I have a coworker who I really like and mostly the rest are like you describe.

I can’t wait to get out of this role and back to having a more normal job. Nowhere near you, but I’ve worked a bunch of places in the US and none have been like this

Bro I have my first “big company” job after working smaller places for over a decade. This feels so real. I’m dying.

I moved from the US to Europe and I keep joking that the largest QoL upgrade has been my unbelievably dumb microwave. It has a power knob, a timer knob that is spring wound, and when it hits 0 it physically hits a bell like an older toaster.

I fucking love it. It was like 20€

FEIE is like $125k usd

Looks like light, small toolkit, stem height adjustment

Yeah, certainly depends exactly where you go. A capital city and a rural town will feel extremely different on English speaking (and cultural/political views at that).

I think it’s quite possible to do though. Happy to chat or answer any specific questions you have, especially if they’re Scandinavia based.

It’s a tough choice to do something like you’re talking about but extremely fulfilling. I wouldn’t trade the decision for the world at this point. I wish you the best of luck!

US ex pat here:

I think you will find more success in this if you find a place or two you want to live in and run TO something instead of AWAY from something. It’ll always be a bit of both, but this post reads more like (very understandably) “get me out of here” than “I want to be somewhere new”.

Being an ex pat has plenty of hard aspects of course. I think some of them are made quite a bit easier when you passionately dive into the culture and life in a new place. At least to me it would be impossible if my head was still in the US.

Of course you’re doing nothing wrong! Just some advice if it gets a bit more serious.

Like many in the thread: Canada, Australia/New Zealand, Scandinavia, Germany, UK (not that they’re doing fantastic right now), Netherlands would be my top choices with your criteria. Most large companies will be more likely to have English speaking as the working language and you’ll learn the local language (s) while living there. Best of luck!

How has it been to find friend circles and such with being ostracized by the church/your community?

Glad to hear you and your son are out

Met my coworkers after work yesterday. 21 minute bike or car ride by the GPS. By the time they parked downtown it was 35 mins, meanwhile I shaved a minute off the GPS :) feels goooood

I’m glad you asked!

I didn’t really like the aesthetic at first so I was on the fence.

It’s 3D, and most things take up more space with plenty of them taking some height as well. This makes the builds a bit more complex in a fun way. Also, the scaling is wild. You need a LOT more shapes, so you can duplicate or make more efficient things, ship them by train eventually, really makes it feel like a different game by the end than it does in the start.

They have a huge content update coming June 2 as well

It’s also HEAVY, so something light sold by weight just needs a liiiiittle lead to be a lot cheaper to make

Frostpunk 2 is a really interesting one to me.

I LOVED the first game. Soundtrack on in the background sometimes, liked the board game (just manual meh balance FP1), got all the achievements, really enjoyed it.

The second IS a good distinction from it, it’s not just rinse and repeat the same game. Great story, epic music, different scale and problems. It’s just like… They took the second tier of ideas they had for FP1 and implemented them. It actually probably would have been a good game if it didn’t have those footsteps to follow in.

Surprisingly, a few recent sequels have been amazing. Shapez2 is an unbelievable follow up to the OG. Hades II is the same imo. Massive, beautiful, fun distinction in gameplay, but still great ideas and balanced and such.

Monster Train 2 is great in demo, Kingdoms 2 crowns is a bit less recent but is such a great follow up to what’s effectively an arcade game in the first. It’s not all downhill or anything

Also silksong wen

Southern Scandinavia checking in with 13 and sunny with a light breeze

Diez :)

Yeah, I totally get it! Very big difference to anyone with half a brain. But the current GOP could easily be seeing it as a checkbox instead of a huge reason for his winning the 1932 election

A key difference is that Hitler didn’t cause the hyperinflation.

I am irrationally hopeful that even most dumbasses who voted for him will realize that his policies fucked them, and can’t save them

10 is optimistic imo