@TankieTanuki@hexbear.net you ok?

https://www.wsmv.com/2025/05/06/police-find-pet-raccoon-holding-meth-pipe-during-traffic-stop-hes-trying-smoke-it/

Day 28: they suspect nothing

Kinda rude to catch them with a net and misgender them, but maybe they thought Dirt_Owl was actually Santa Claus?

My doctor has been prescribing different meds to see which work for me. He's reluctant to prescribe Adderall because of the (artificial FDA-created) shortage. Here's what we've tried so far:

Wellbutrin: Awful, made me feel depressed and generally shitty, quit after a few days.

Strattera: Better reading comprehension, less scattered thoughts. But I was sometimes tired, confused, and unfocused after meals. Also I had a weird tingly sensation on my tongue like I was drinking soda.

Strattera plus Methylphenidate: My doctor had me take a lower dose of Strattera with 10 mg time-release Methylphenidate for a week as a transition between the two. The combo was effective in that it got me to focus, but it effectively killed my inner monologue and made it nearly impossible to have any creative thoughts. Made me feel like the aliens in Blindsight: intelligent but not sentient.

Methylphenidate: What I'm on right now. 10 mg time-release first thing in the morning, plus another 5 mg quick release in the afternoon if I'm feeling tired or unfocused (not sure if I should make that an everyday thing). Generally, it seems very similar to caffeine, but more mellow and consistent over time, and I've been able to cut my caffeine use in half. It seems to help with focus and energy, but not as much with procrastination (I should really be doing chores right now).

I've seen people on here and elsewhere say that Vyvanse helped them, should I ask my doctor if I should try that next? Or does it have the same problems with shortages that Adderall does? Would Strattera plus Vyvanse have the same effects as it did with Methylphenidate?

Everything will be better after the election I promise

That said, I'm going with Fancy strut #6

I've tried clearing all browsing data and it keeps giving me an error. It works fine on Firefox and the mobile version of Chrome.

I got an old Windows 7 laptop that was going to be thrown out and decided to put Linux on it (see previous thread here). Most people suggested I go with the latest stable version of Debian, so that's what I installed. I've mostly used Windows, but I do have some experience with Ubuntu.

The installation went smoothly, but I've had a few problems getting it set up to my liking:

1. I can't figure out how to setup flatpak. Everything seems to be working fine until I enter the last line in the terminal:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

I hit enter and nothing happens. No error message or anything. I restarted the computer but flatpak doesn't work, either through the software center or the flatpak website. I found a few forum posts with the same problem, but no solutions.

2. I somehow set it up so that my username is not the super user, so I have to type a password in the terminal every time I want to use sudo. Is there a way to fix this without a clean install?

3. I somehow set up the hard drive partitions so that the OS is on an encrypted partition, so I have to put in a password for the BIOS to boot up. Is there a way to fix this without a clean install?

4. I'm used to a desktop interface with a toolbar/start menu that I can pin frequently-used programs to, but with Debian it seems like I need to click "Activities" to do anything. Is there a way to set up the interface so it's more like Windows in that regard?

5. If I need to do a clean install, I'm thinking of switching to Ubuntu, since I'm more familiar with the interface. Is there any reason why I should stick with Debian? I've heard some people trashing Ubuntu but I'm not sure why. Is Debian better for older hardware?

Edit: Thanks for all the knowledgeable replies. I did a fresh install of Debian 12 (64 bit) with KDE and it seems to have resolved all my problems. Although it's a little slow and buggy, I've had to reboot it twice. I'll try a lightweight DE if that continues.

Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I've seen lots of suggested videos lately on how to build DIY rockets