Thanks to @Lemmygradwontallowme@hexbear.net, I realize I've never properly said howdy here either.

I have an account on Lemmygrad as well, I bounce between both occasionally (sometimes I want to just look at Lemmygrad local and see what's going on there).

I have a comm over there !wizardstower@lemmygrad.ml, which currently I don't use much, except for testing functionality of the Lemmy UI.

Furthermore, I'm very much a tech enthusiast, and will probably use that comm to play around with the Lemmy API, maybe test a LemmyBot.

Likewise, I also mod the !parenting@hexbear.net community, and try to be active there. It's a slow comm, and it might be difficult for folks to use, since it almost requires some exposing of personal information to participate. Being a parent really absorbs a lot of time, so while growing the comm and building its activity is something I think about, I often have no time to actually do it. 😅

Covid and my kids are definitely the cornerstone that defines my engagement with Marxism and Socialism in general. They both arrived at similar times, and this compounding pressure really accelerated my exposure to how things actually worked. Being ADHD also grants me this tendency to see the forest for the trees, and also be keenly aware of injustice and contradictions between actions and words. Also, love him or hate him, shoutout to Hasan Piker for being the tip of the slippery slope that eventually got me here.

I'm also deeply into TTRPGs, but as noted above, never have time to engage with them in the capacity I want. World building is fun and exciting, building a setting and letting others explore it is unlike any gaming experience I've had before. Playing the role of Game Master and hamming it up for the people I love is a real joy for me. I feel like I'm truly my weird and fun self, mask fully off, when running a game of D&D. It's very freeing.

The pendulum of time will eventually swing back into my favor, and I hold no grudges about where my time goes now. Kids are dope, and they're worth ever second (even when they refuse to go to sleep).

Anyway, I might delete this later. Who knows? For now, however, just wanted to say 👋 Howdy!