🌟🌟 Social 🌟🌟 PD Social Thread 2022-2025 v. Year of the Phenethylamine

[deficiT]

@Esperighanto when did you become a mod? Congrats dude.

Are they no longer doing welcome threads around here? :/

 

[Esperighanto]

Thank you! It was only a couple of weeks ago iirc, and there was a welcoming thread but I don't think it was in PD, but my notifications don't go back far enough for me to see exactly which forum it was in.

@Esperighanto when did you become a mod? Congrats dude.

Are they no longer doing welcome threads around here? :/

 

[deficiT]

Thank you! It was only a couple of weeks ago iirc, and there was a welcoming thread but I don't think it was in PD, but my notifications don't go back far enough for me to see exactly which forum it was in.

Congrats all the same! Awesome choice for the job

 

[JackARoe]

Yeah we did extend the Love to @Esperighanto. In two threads too but can't remember where. The mod threads?

He knows we are psyched and I notice a partner joining too. I think between the two of them we will get double wild stories.

Always good to see you distankkarma. I get nervous when I don't see people for a bit. So love back at you too.

 

[Esperighanto]

I think between the two of them we will get double wild stories.

Thank the gods that @Felidaez is around tbh, after a concusison I sustained ~a year ago he would always have to convince me not to do stupid things with drugs. Post-concussive reckless drug use is for real. Drinking a full vial of acid, housing a third gram of speed, trying to bring 20+mg of etizolam to bed for him to hassle me down to like 2-6mg iirc? He's not just my best friend and fiance, but a fucking saint too tbh.

I think I just chatted his ears off about BL enough until he finally joined hahaha, but essentially every trip I've partaken in over the last couple of years has been alongside him. He keeps a list of every drug he's used and it's probably increased tenfold because of my influence, hell we met because I was introducing him to LSD.

The mod threads?

Yeah I think it was in the mod threads, I've definitely been feeling the love! Currently I'm testing techniques for downloading Discord chats for academic analysis, and also pondering how I would find guests for a BL podcast if that project can get tossed my way at some point.

 

[Cream Gravy?]

I've been feeling rather nostalgic lately, after smoking some cannabis for the first time in over two years and keeping a small stash of it in my bedroom now. It smells of weed, and my wife's and my musk all mixed, and it reminds me both wonderfully and horribly of being young.

And I just went and looked through the BL Shrine because I was wondering how many people I used to talk to here were still around, and as it turns out, not many. So now I'm feeling a great sadness along with nostalgia and general emotional aching for times and people and things long gone.

I hope some people come back and check in here again someday.

 

[Esperighanto]

It smells of weed, and my wife's and my musk all mixed, and it reminds me both wonderfully and horribly of being young

The tastes of Maine weed, of mushrooms (especially as they fruit), of growing cannabis, the horrible taste of Kanna burps, coca/ephedra teas' unique tastes, the fragrance of smoking DMT and the electricity of LSD as it meets the tongue, these are all things I also look back at super nostalgically. I had what I suppose is a "quarter life crisis" a few months back and one of the biggest things I'm grateful towards psychedelics for is helping me to perspectivize the way that most people just come and go throughout life, you know? It's like watching a busy city experiencing sonder, but then being part of the sonder itself if that makes sense.

I'm sure this comment won't be of a ton of help but I'm sure you'll figure out the tarnished vibe situation.

 

[Cream Gravy?]

I'm feeling pretty good/sad after I helped rehome a cat that was living at my workplace. It's not a very safe place for a cat to live, and there was danger that he could have been injured both emotionally and physically. Most cats who live at my job die early deaths and lose limbs...

So I'm happy for Captain Jellybean, that he's gonna go be an outdoor cat at my supervisor's house in a rural area with three nice kids who will I'm sure love him. He'll definitely be better off than he would be at work. But I feel a bit sad to see him go, because I had grown attached to him. Each night he would sit up front and 'check IDs' as people turned over for shifts lol. He was always so happy to see me when I came in. I was the only one he would let hold him for any extended period. But I pleaded with my wife to let us take him in, but she understandably said we couldn't take in another cat after we adopted a neighborhood stray two years ago now. Cats cost money, ruin furniture, and can get testy about living with other cats, and we lucked out in that our two boys don't have territorial disputes at all.

So yeah, Captain Jellybean is going to a better home, and I couldn't have taken him in anyhow; the neighborhood children are murderess demons and we haven't any space for another litter box... but I'll miss him, and he's such a cute boy-cat.



I left work feeling proud that I had done my good deed for the day, but I still cried quite a bit. He also got so scared when my supervisor started his truck and I passed him over to him, he cut up my finger and I didn't notice till I was home. When I saw all the blood on my finger and steering wheel I just cried. It doesn't hurt, just... there are so, so many cats out there and I try to help so many, donating items to coworkers and trying to educate people on how to care for them outdoors and indoors. But try as I may I've maybe helped save four cats at most. Many end up disappearing and many end up dead at work...

Just, real melancholic feeling. I can't save the world, and I can't save all the cats.

 

[perpetualdawn]

It's like watching a busy city experiencing sonder, but then being part of the sonder itself if that makes sense.

What does the word sonder mean?
And when do quarter life crises occur? Your comment makes me think you're much younger than I imagined, or you are planning on being a super-ager.

 

[Cheshire_Kat]

What does the word sonder mean?

(psychology) sonder: the profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, has a life as complex as one's own, which they are constantly living despite one's personal lack of awareness of it.

 

[perpetualdawn]

(psychology) sonder: the profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, has a life as complex as one's own, which they are constantly living despite one's personal lack of awareness of it.

Wow that's interesting, I've never heard of this word before. It's an experience I can relate to deeply, but maybe as a subset of this feeling. A very profound experience I had was coming home from the hospital in the car with my newborn son and my wife, raining outside, and seeing all these people I don't know walking with umbrellas and realizing very completely in more than just a conceptual way, that every single one of them have/had someone who loves them in the same way that I love for my son.

 

[JackARoe]

My life is a sonder. I will not flick the bird to anyone driving as their life may have just included their mother or dog dying. I think I naturally treat people this way. I would hope most are intelligent enough to know each life is complex and most of our lives can have joy and hurt. Forgive my harshness but anyone experiencing road rage is an asshole. I remember being in the car with a coworker at lunch and he got real mad at someone and I said dude, relax. As we passed I saw a girl crying and she really was only going 5 mph below speed limit. Patience is needed.

Interesting, sonder. Going to ponder the sonder....

 

[Esperighanto]

ponder the sonder

Pondering Sonder sounds like a great song name, I may use this for an unnamed glitch track I'm working on right now.

And when do quarter life crises occur? Your comment makes me think you're much younger than I imagined, or you are planning on being a super-ager.

I'm 26 in 8 days, so I'd used the term "quarter life crisis" referring to being 25. I'm not sure how old you'd imagined I am, but I am quite curious as to what a super-ager is.

 

[perpetualdawn]

@Esperighanto a super-ager is just someone who lives to be very healthy to a very old age. A worthwhile aspiration!

I imagined that you were older than that, probably biased by having that old guy as your avatar (is it Sigmund Freud?), and because your writing comes across as being mature. Speaking of your avatar I don't remember it having that oil-slick effect.

 

[Esperighanto]

@Esperighanto a super-ager is just someone who lives to be very healthy to a very old age. A worthwhile aspiration!

I imagined that you were older than that, probably biased by having that old guy as your avatar (is it Sigmund Freud?), and because your writing comes across as being mature. Speaking of your avatar I don't remember it having that oil-slick effect.

Ah, yeah for most of my life people have clocked me as being older, even when I'm just visually seen. I had a full beard by ~11 years old, so I've always "looked older" I suppose. The man in my avatar is Ludwig Zamenhof, the inventor of the constructed language Esperanto. My username, esperighanto, means "That which inspires hope", which is how I view the impact of drugs on myself. The name seemed fitting as a result.

And the oil slick effect was something I threw together a night or two ago using the open source image editing program Paint.NET, I figured it would add a little psychedelic flair to the image now that I'm modding PD.

 

[perpetualdawn]

@Esperighanto an ~11yo with a full beard - wow you were ahead of the curve!
Esperanto, a noble project, I love it. It would be interesting to participate in the global Esperanto community.

It seems like there is some intersection between Baha'i faith and Esperanto.

I've spent a lot of time in Indonesia and I reckon Indonesian would make a great contender for a world language. It has bits and bobs from so many different languages - languages of the indies, Portuguese, Sanskrit, Arabic, Dutch, and neologisms from English. The grammar is very simple. I think Indonesian ended up being a bit of an Esperanto-like project within the nation of Indonesia - when the nation was formed the leaders recognized that they needed a language to unify the nation (which has ~700 native languages). Because the centre of power was Java, the default would have been to impose Javanese on the young nation, but the leaders were clever enough to recognize that the citizens could become resentful of being forced to speak the language of their overlords. Therefore they took the Malay trading lingua franca of the region, formalized it and began to sanction it as the official language and teaching it in the schools. At least that's my cartoon understanding of how it played out. It's adoption was probably helped by the fact that it was backed by an often brutal authoritarian regime. In any case, the language has definitely caught on and is the main language that everyone uses to communicate in the country. Often people learn a regional mother tongue at home, and then Bahasa Indonesia once they go to school.

 

[arrall]

I had a full beard by ~11 years old

Goddamn… that blows my mind.
I’m blonde so I can barely grow a visible beard now in my 20s.

The man in my avatar is Ludwig Zamenhof, the inventor of the constructed language Esperanto

Do you speak Esperanto? I’ve heard of it before and I’d love to learn more about it.

And the oil slick effect was something I threw together a night or two ago using the open source image editing program Paint.NET, I figured it would add a little psychedelic flair to the image now that I'm modding PD.

Any tutorials or anything you can link for how you did it? It looks sick.

 

[Esperighanto]

@Esperighanto an ~11yo with a full beard - wow you were ahead of the curve!
Esperanto, a noble project, I love it. It would be interesting to participate in the global Esperanto community.

It seems like there is some intersection between Baha'i faith and Esperanto.

I've spent a lot of time in Indonesia and I reckon Indonesian would make a great contender for a world language. It has bits and bobs from so many different languages - languages of the indies, Portuguese, Sanskrit, Arabic, Dutch, and neologisms from English. The grammar is very simple. I think Indonesian ended up being a bit of an Esperanto-like project within the nation of Indonesia - when the nation was formed the leaders recognized that they needed a language to unify the nation (which has ~700 native languages). Because the centre of power was Java, the default would have been to impose Javanese on the young nation, but the leaders were clever enough to recognize that the citizens could become resentful of being forced to speak the language of their overlords. Therefore they took the Malay trading lingua franca of the region, formalized it and began to sanction it as the official language and teaching it in the schools. At least that's my cartoon understanding of how it played out. It's adoption was probably helped by the fact that it was backed by an often brutal authoritarian regime. In any case, the language has definitely caught on and is the main language that everyone uses to communicate in the country. Often people learn a regional mother tongue at home, and then Bahasa Indonesia once they go to school.

Yeah I hit puberty at 8 years old, and my family has a lot of people with pretty intense facial hair so I suppose it came on quickly. I was also as tall as I am now (5'9) by 11 or 12 years old, it was weird having a man's body at a young age. There was an incident during 4th or 5th grade where I was talking on the playground with other kids and the teachers rushed everybody back inside because my voice led them into thinking a grown man had snuck onto the playground to talk to the children.

Malay is fascinating, historical/comparative linguistics and language learning are huge passions of mine. In college I was fortunate enough to land some research positions working with corpus linguistics, which was insanely fun. Malay as a language is shockingly simple to learn for anglophones. While there aren't many cognates between Malay and English, the grammar of Malay feels like it was intentionally meant to be easy to learn, because in many ways, it was. Most "pidgin languages" as these are often referred to seem to be quite easy to learn, likely out of necessity. I always tell native anglophones that if they want to shoot for being a polyglot for the brain exercises instead of to take on serious challenges, go for Malay, Norwegian/Danish (kind of the same language tbh), Afrikaans/Dutch (very similar but not identical), Spanish, and French. Currently I'm brushing back up French, have English and Spanish quite down, want to refresh German, and then shoot for Irish Gaelic, and then either Vlax Romani, Hindi, Mandarin, Cantonese or Japanese. Esperanto I can't seem to forget though. I learned it on a whim years ago as a teenager and I barely ever use it, but when I think of a sentence I can still pretty effortlessly convey it in Esperanto. It's peculiar how Esperanto, despite having been intentionally constructed, exhibits that ease-of-learning that I notice in pidgin languages.

I’m blonde so I can barely grow a visible beard now in my 20s.

One of my best friends is very blonde (both parents moved here from Iceland) and he can grow a full beard but keeps it shaved because it's so blonde that it almost blends in with his skin, he's got that white-ish kind of blonde hair that I'm forgetting the name of. Platinum blonde maybe?

Any tutorials or anything you can link for how you did it? It looks sick.

I appreciate it! And what I did was use the open source software Paint.NET, google "trippy background art", and put that on a layer after I found one I enjoyed. I then took the paintbrush tool and made some low opacity colorful circles over it, and that's the layer above the background. The topmost layer is the image of Ludwig Zamenhof with opacity lowered to see the bottom two layers. There's a real balance to getting the top two layers' opacity balanced correctly, but fiddling with it for long enough will inevitably figure it out.

Do you speak Esperanto? I’ve heard of it before and I’d love to learn more about it.

I can't seem to forget Esperanto, like I brought up earlier in this response to perpetualdawn. If I don't use Spanish or French for years, they get rusty, but Esperanto simply refuses to rust, it's like stainless steel as far as how it gets remembered. Esperanto's fascinating, it was constructed intentionally a couple centuries ago to help bring unity to a city that was quadrilaterally divided into various segments that each spoke different languages. Esperanto is highly agglutinative, meaning that words are often made by adding particles of words together, for example the word Esperanto is Espero with the -ant- infix added. Espero means hope, the -ant- infix meant something that inspires what it's being agglutinated to, so Esperanto's literal meaning is "that which inspires hope". My username here, Esperighanto, is like of like "Inspiring hope-izer" if I was trying to directly translate it to English. It would be properly written in Esperanto as Esperiĝanto, but circumflex g's are a pain in the ass for many websites to render so the other spelling of ĝ is gh, hence my username here being esperighanto as opposed to esperiĝanto. If you have any questions about the language or linguistics overall feel free to reach out, I love talking about it!

 

[arrall]

Currently I'm brushing back up French

Same here! I’m gonna learn either Dutch or German and improve my Spanish after I become more proficient in French.

One of my best friends is very blonde (both parents moved here from Iceland) and he can grow a full beard but keeps it shaved because it's so blonde that it almost blends in with his skin, he's got that white-ish kind of blonde hair that I'm forgetting the name of. Platinum blonde maybe?

Same here. My hair was platinum blonde with dark brown streaks as a kid, and then got darker as I aged. My facial hair is still almost white, and so is all of my body hair other than my chest and armpits weirdly enough.

If you have any questions about the language or linguistics overall feel free to reach out, I love talking about it!

I’m getting over an illness right now so I’m quite tired, but I’ll reach out sometime soon.

 

[Pfafffed]

and French

Whoah there. Settle down now. I was with you until French. It's my benchmark, but now that I'm many languages down the line, I don't think of it as an easy one for Anglophones. I'd sooner tackle Hindi, Korean, Nepali, or te reo Maori over French any day.