100% correct answer.

Someone gave me an emu egg years ago, and I proudly displayed it for a long time. Then I got cats, and realized quickly that I should put it away.

Ive been on an acoustic bender for the last 12-18 months. Last year, I passed through Nashville three times on business trips, and spent an extra day each time, just to spend it in the guitar shops, and play as many guitars as as I could. I probably played over 250 different high end guitars, new and vintage, every major maker, and many custom makers, with prices up to over $20K. With very few exceptions (like $15K+ MacPhersons), none played or sounded better than my vintage Yamaha FG730S. Even those that were better, were only very slightly better, with the improvement not worth the difference in price from my $102 Yammy.

Whoever set up my Yammy was a Wizard, because it plays so smootly that it actually makes me a better player. I’ve never played another guitar like that.

I’ve got some other Yamhas that are also terrific, and I’ve become convinced that quality and price are not necessarily correlated.

I think it helped shape me into a an adventurous, curious person, because that was what motivated me as a kid. Other Free Range kids might have gone out to play sports, or to look for trouble, etc., but i was just exploring.

There was another direct influence on my life: Once, i headed to a nearby “woods,” to watch animals, and bumped into some friends. One jumped over a small creek to greet me, and stepped right onto an underground bee hive. They all poured out of that hive like water, and came directly for me. The first stung my lip, then neary eye. They got in my hair, up my t-shirt, stuck in my socks etc.

I jumped on my bike and started racing toward home, hoping to outrun them, but they were the kind of bees that don’t lose their stingers, so the ones stuck in my clothes kept stinging me. By the time i got home i had at least 30 stings.

I’m okay now, but i was really afraid of bees for many years. Gardening helped me learn to lose my fear.

Overall, i think it made me a person who isn’t afraid of the world, and i know i can navigate any situation that comes up.

Back in the 60s, i was a Free-Range kid. On on a nice non-school day, I would go out after breakfast on my bike, and be gone all day, without any money, a watch, ID, cell phone (didn’t exist back then), anything, and I’d be gone all day. The only rule was to be home by 5 pm.

Nobody knew where I was, who I was speaking to, or anything. If i bumped into friends, I’d hang out for a while, but if I needed to know the time, I’d ask some stranger. If I was thirsty, I’d knock on a random door and ask for a glass of water. Once, I stopped at the end of a driveway to watch some guy doing woodworking in his open garage. He saw me watching and this stranger invited me into garage, and showed me his tools, and what he was building. Turned out he was a decent guy, and I probably reminded him of his grandson, but what if he wasn’t? My primary fear was running into the Robolotto boys, but as long as I didn’t see one of them, I was happy.

This was routine for years, and it was the same for my friends. I started doing this when I was about 7 years old.

So they are emphasizing gameplay over vigorous free speech discussion, which was their original mission. Makes sense to pivot like this, after kicking out all your veteran, high volume posters. Now discussion threads are filled with puns, trolls, bots, Russian Propaganda Farmers, etc., and its only gotten much worse now that their best participants aren’t diluting the nonsense.

I’ve wondered if that will happen once they realize they’ve chased off so many core members.

I’m not sure I’d return. I like the higher volume of posts on Reddit, especially in niche subs, but i don’t miss the bots, trolls, puns, novelty accounts, Russian karma farmers, etc.

Musk has been pressuring them to go after critics of him, and the administration, and Reddit is capitulating. Cowards.

I suspect it is because they want to buy TikTok, and they know HitlerPig will award it based on appeasement and the bribe.

After 12 years and over 900K Karma, I got permanently banned for repeating an opinion that I’ve posted many times over the past decade. Then Trump gets elected, and the exact same opinion gets me a permaban.

Now I’m hearing that they are banning people for UPVOTES! I wondered why Reddit had decided to throw in with the Nazis, and I this week I see in the news that Ohanion wants to buy TikTok. The new owner of TikTok will be personally chosen by HitlerPig, so Zuckerfuck has been kissing up, and now Ohanion wants in on it. HitlerPig will award it to whomever kisses his ass and pays him the most.