u/Key_Day_7932

Hello! I picked up Platinum and tried to do a normal run through it since I've never beaten it.

I want to try again, but do things differently. What advice do you have?

Last time, I tried to make a team without using the regional staples like Staraptor. My team wasn't super original and I still used a few of them, I just tried not to have the exact same team as every other Sinnoh player.

My last team consisted of Torterra, Gyarados, Rapidash, Togekiss, Luxray and Weavile

I quit because I was still under leveled by the time I got to the Elite 4 and I didn't want to spend hours grinding. Like, I couldn't even beat Aaron. I tried to train my whole team at once so they'd all be roughly at the same level.

Should I catch my core team early in the game or catch higher level later game Pokemon as soon as they are available?

For the starter, I'm torn between Turtwig and Chimchar. I like Turtwig more, but Chimchar might be more useful due to the region's lack of Fire types. It's not as bad in Platinum as it was in Diamond and Pearl, but still.

Hello!

I've been deconstructing my faith lately, and have some questions.

I still consider myself an orthodox evangelical as I still affirm the Trinity and affirm the authority of Scriptures, etc. However, I am starting whether I am a good fit for the SBC, a denomination that always had some kind of presence in my life.

The main thing is I am agnostic about the traditional view of hell (also known as eternal conscious torment) or annihilationism (like Kirk Cameron.) I see arguments for both sides. I think the important thing is that you still affirm that the rigtheouss will have eternal life while the wicked will face eternal punishment (be it either eternal torment or being erased from existence.)

Also, while I am a complementarian, I am skeptical about the recent amendment that was passed. It seems a bit to top-down to me, and we were already able to discipline churches that ordained women pastors like Rick Warren's Saddleback Church.

Is the SBC still a good fit for me, or is it time to start looking for another denomination?

Bit of a weird question, I know.

If you aren't familiar with Soren Kierkegaard, he was a Christian philosopher from the 19th Centrury and often regarded as the father of existentialism.

He had a lot of critiques of Christendom in his day. Most of it I was aimed at the Evangelical Lutheran because he was Danish and that was his church, but his criticisms could also apply to just about every tradition of Christianity.

He thought faith and reason were opposed. In other words, he believed no one could come to know Christ through mere human reason alone (since we are fallen creatures separated from God) but instead we must take a leap of faith.

He felt the church had emphasized stale dogmas and rote traditions over a genuine and living faith.

He also took shots at Bible scholars who over-interpreted Scripture rather than actually hearing the Holy Spirit speaking to them through the text.

Heiser is a biblical scholar who goes deep into the text. I haven't read any of his stuff about fideism, but what I can gleam, he doesn't see faith and reason as opposed to each other.

So, can one adhere to the teachings of both individuals, or are they disagreeing with each other?

So, I am studying Protestant soteriology, particularly concerning predestination and free will.

I'm a former Calvinist, and now lean toward Provisionism. However, Provisionists believe in libertarian free will where an individual can freely and equally choose between X or Y.

Compatiblism, otoh, says that man is a free agent in the sense he is not compelled by God to anything and makes choices through his own volition, but he his choice is constrained by his nature and cannot act against his own nature.

Despite no longer being a Calvinist, compatiblism has always made more sense to me than libertarian free will from both a theological and philosophical standpoint.

Can you be a compatiblist but not a Calvinist?

So, I am in agreement with pretty much everything Baptists teach except for maybe eternal conscious torment.

I affirm conditional immortality or annihilationism, though my view is different from the Adventist version.

For one, I reject soul sleep. I still think the deceased person still experiences a conscious spiritual reality in the afterlife. Rather, the unrig will eventually cease to exist without being sustained by God. Only the saved will experience a true immortality.

Can I affirm such a view and still be a Baptist in good standing?

So, I'm playing Explorers of Sky and made it to Quicksand Cave. Either I suck or there's been a spike in difficulty.

Someone suggested I take advantage of Electivire's link shop, which I've been putting off because I'm not sure what moves I should be linking.

For some additional context, I'm a Riolu with a partner Vulpix.

My moveset is Endurence, Bite, Forcepalm ans Reversal. idk if I can re-learn Counter. What move should I get rid of to re-learn it?

What moves should I be linking?

So, I think I'm autistic (retroactive diagnosis.) Basically, when I was five or six, I was diagnosed with PDD-NOS. The doctor thought I was too high functioning to be autistic. After researching the condition, though, I learned PDD-NOS is now considered part of the spectrum, so I guess I am autistic after all.

So, anyway, special interests. What are they and how do they differ from passions or hobbies?

Idk if I have special interests or not. When I was kid, I was obsessed with dinosaurs, robots, chess, but I gradually lost interest in them.

During my teens, I was a geography nerd. I liked maps and atlases, and collected them.

I'm almost 30, and I feel like my special interest is harder to identify now. If I had to guess, it'd probably be linguistics. I love reading about languages and how they are structured (syntax, morphology, syllable structure, etc.) I'm not a linguist except maybe in a strictly hobbyist sense, but I think I have a more in depth knowledge about how languages work than most non-linguists do. I can only English, a little bit of Spanish, though.

So, what are special interests like for you?

Hello! I'm a SC native, born and raised, but I never really followed state politics closely. I want to change that.

What do you recommend for me to become more familiar withe issues and politicians in our state?

I know depending on who and where I ask, I'm gonna get a different answer from one side of the political spectrum or the other, so I want a balanced perspective.

A problem I have noticed in my own writing is that my sentences seem too stilted and disjointed. Maybe I'm being overly-critical of myself, but I feel like I try too hard with my sentences.

I sometimes re-read what I wrote and find it could be written better to flow more, or that I could express it in a less clunky way.

This may be personal bias, but I think I write better in first person than third person.

For now, I'm not too concerned with getting better at imagery or descriptive language. I just want my sentences to sound better.

What tips do you have for improving sentence structure?

So, out of curiosity, is anyone here who is ADHD or autistic but lean right wing politically?

It seems most neurodivergents I've encountered online are leftists, but it seems left wing politics is the predominant viewpoint of most online spaces and doesn't necessarily reflect real life.

I'm neurodivergent myself. Specifically I have ADHD. I think I am also autistic despite not being officially diagnosed. According to my mom, I was tested and tbe only reason I didn't get the diagnosis was because the doctor wasn't aware of high functioning autism, so I got diagnosed with PDD-NOS, instead.

Idk if I'd describe myself as conservative or right wing, but I did grow up in a conservative environment and it probably did influence my own views. Still, I try to think for myself and gather all the information and make sure I'm open to being wrong. It's more I find the left/progressives, at least online and in media to just be that goddamn insufferable that I don't want to give them any satisfaction.

I also think there's the identity politics aspect that I'm obligated to support the left due to my neurodivergence, since conservatives are seen as against my own interests. Fuck that. I don't want to be told what to think or who to support.

What about you?

So, I'm gonna be 30 in a couple of months and have nothing to show for it. I have no marketable skills and no education beyond a high school diploma. The only jobs I can get are dead end entry level stuff.

I have ADHD, so taking initiative and seeing things through to the end have never been my strong suits

I made a plan to go to trade school, but my GPA is low enough that I am (once again) on academic suspension.

I've attempted community college several times and it never worked out. The first few times I only went because my mom pushed me, so I didn't really want to be there.

I went again for IT but discovered it wasn't my thing. I waited too long to drop the classes and now it affected my GPA. At this point, I've lost track of how many times I have applied for college. I've attempted college at least six or seven times.

I went to vocational rehab, but they closed my case because I got a new job and kept missing appointments (I worked 12 hour shifts and kept oversleeping.) I tried going back, but they didn't seem that interested in helping me again.

I just really don't know what to do. It just seems like whenever a door finally opens, it gets abruptly slammed shut in my face again.

I know that work and sleep are just part of adulting, but surely there has to be more to life than this?

At this point, I just want an employable skill, I don't care what it is (automechanics, HVAC, welding, whatever.)

What do I do?

So, I'm a Southern Baptist. I always figured if I weren't in the denomination, I'd just be non-denominational.

I'm concerned about the direction the denomination is moving in. I don't mind Calvinists and see them as fellow brothers in Christ, but I see an increasinglynCalvinist faction that wants to push the denomination unti a more Reformed direction.

I also don't agree with the new amendment that was voted on. Sure, I don't think women pastors are biblical, but I think the amendment would concentrate more power in the denomination vs local church autonomy. Not to mention. the SBC was able to expel churches that ordained women pastors like Saddleback without the need for an amendment.

Am I fretting over nothing?

So, I was reading up about the presidential form of government and learned that a few of them have a "prime minister."

It's not the same as in a parliamentary system and the prime minister exists primarily to serve the president. But, how is a prime minister in these systems different from a vice president?

Hello!

I registered for some welding classes at my local community college, but my semes doesn't start until a couple of months from now.

One thing I am concerned about is that I don't have very good hand-to-eye coordination and jt seems like precision is necessary for welding. Will this hold me back, or are the plenty of welders who also have that problem?

Also, idk if it's relevant, but I am neurodivergent.

Hello!

I have a really old laptop. It's a HP Notebook. It's pretty slow and won't let me upgrade to Win 11.

I'm thinking of putting Linux Mint on there, but I am wondering if I could still put Win 11 by installing it through other means?

Thing is, I want a gaming PC, but I'm on a budget. I have a monitor, but no CPU tower, so I am thinking about hooking the monitor to the laptop as a kind of a temporary thing until I actually get a tower. Problem is, the laptop is pretty slow, so adding a monitor won'f really fix anything.

I'm not planning to build the PC from scratch. I just need to acquire some more peripherals and such.

I know an HP Notebook is terrible for gaming, but I had to make do with what I have, and I have been able to get Valkyria Chronicles to run on it.

I know Linux is generally better than Windows, but gaming seems to be the one advantage Windows has over Linux.

Are there any third party OS's you could recommend as well?

So, some common criticisms levied at republics by proponents of constitutional monarchy is that republics are prone to corruption, democratic backsliding, and polarization. There's also that elections are expensive, politicians are self serving and prone to short term thinking because they want to get re-elected and they manipulate the emotions of the electorate to get them to vote their way.

Are there merits to what constitunal monarchists say? It certainly seem like constitutional monarchies, at least in Europe, are less corrupt and more democratic than many republics. However, a counter argument to this is that it's not that monarchies are inherently better or more stable, but that the bad ones were abolished and so the only extant monarchies were the good ones or ones that reformed enough thar the populace found it tolerable.

What are your thoughts?

So, I know every good story needs structure, and I think I understand it in theory, but I have a hard time figuring out where the beats in my story fall within said structure. Or, I know the major scenes or events that must happen, but have no idea how to build up to or link them together.

Idk. Whenever I try to put things down to paper and plot out the story, I get in some kind of mental block.

It just kinda feels discouraging, like my stories meander without going anywhere in particular.

What advice do you have?

So, I find I prefer "smaller" worlds. What I mean is a setting focused on a single local like a village or city instead of an epic universe like most worldbuilding projects.

Instead of clashes between kingdoms or adventurers traversing the continent to vanquish the dark lord, the stories all take place within a single community and focuses on the lives of the residents. Think like a Medieval town or space station.

There are still implications of a larger world beyond the town, but it's all superficial to the main part of the setting, and might even be mysterious to the residents assuming their community is isolated.

My idea is to have a setting that focuses on a handful of core characters in a more cozy slice of life narrative. There can still be action, but it's not the focus. Interactions with the wider world can be through a traveling merchant who tells the locals about the places he's been to, maybe the outskirts are infested with monsters, etc.

Anyone else have a setting like this?

Hey, I'll make this quick.

I'm almost 30 and am a deadbeat. I bounce around dead end jobs and have no skills.

I am tired of this, and want to change it. I'm wondering if you have any advice?

I've applied for classes at the local community college, but my semester doesn't start until fall.

I have a job. It sucks, but still better than being unemployed. Still, I need to find a way to maintain my sanity until classes start.

I think my problem is that I lack motivation and ambition. My dad (who I live with) noticed this, as did my therapist and the vocational rehab counselor I saw. Idk what to do about it, though.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation? What did you do?

So, yeah. I'm gonna be 30 in a few months and I feel like I haven't really gotten anywhere in life. I bounce between dead end jobs. I have no skills or experience beyond some basic entry level positions in retail and warehouse jobs.

I know there are ways to improve my situation, such as going back to school, but it hasn't worked out the last few times.

I've registered for classes again. Idk if it will work out.

I at least know what my problem is. I have no drive or motivation for anything in life. Nothing seems to excite me. I feel like nothing matters. It's probably depression.

I know something needs to change, but idk whar nor how.

I was seeing a therapist for anxiety issues, but ended up terminating things because I lost my job and therapy is expensive.

Idk what to do or how to get out of this. I don't want this to be my life.

What should I do?