Once upon a time I found r/CTH and I lurked there for months. It was during the democratic debates that someone said something that was so funny that it broke my vow of silence and made me want to post as well. I was originally won over when I found people from the sub deride someone for being racist by telling them to post hog. I wasn’t used to having anyone but scolds go to bat for me and it resonated with me. When the sub closing down I remember there was a post that was all “thank you all for being such wonderful comrades” and the reply was to the effect of “don’t mention it.” And that’s the kind of energy I strive to have forevermore. I was disappointed in the lag between the sub and this site, but I wasn’t sad sad about it. But I heard somewhere, probably like a tangential subr*ddit that there was a new site coming up and I jumped at the chance to be a part of it.

I’ve never been too good at being a part of the community. I missed a lot of the transphobia that people were talking about. I thought we were all down for the cause and being supportive. When we needed pronouns I put them on my profile real quick no questions asked. When TC69 asked us to read I did it and engaged in conversation. I thought I was a power user until I saw the amount of comments some people make and it always humbles me. For as much as I like anything, there’s someone who likes it more. That rocks. I suppose I’m a mod on our fitness com; I’ve all but abdicated my duties and it’s a source of embarrassment for me. I want to make sure people avoid glorifying disordered eating (all calories are bastards) and that they don’t think we can offer medical advice. We already have some of the best advice that the Internet has to offer in terms of general fitness - I’ve used it myself to lose 16kg previously.

Outside of the posting I work in non-descriptly and non-identifiably in some type of human biological sciences. I used to work in the adrenachrome factory in which I saw horror stories of the American healthcare system. Moving away from there I now work in the CIA trying to catch posters for being too based to inject them with cringe lib takes and nanochips.

I have two main interests that followed me from before I was a lefty: combat sports and fantasy novel writing. I have a brown belt in BJJ and I’ve competed successfully at that level. I also have a couple years of muay thai experience and have competed there as well (kind of because it was decided draw before we stepped in). I was invited to start coaching BJJ fundamentals after my latest promotion and it’s a big source of inspiration for me because people dig my classes. It has accelerated my own learning because I realized how much I was doing wrong myself and some of the moves that had become defunct suddenly started working for me again. People who want to start or use other arts will sometimes come to me for my opinion and expertise in grappling. Being part of the academy is sometimes trying for me because it puts me in conversations with veterans and I have an ideological disposition that opposes me to them but I have a laid back disposition when it comes to normal conversation. There’s always that tension of wanting to point fingers at them and call them an imperial pawn, but damn if that would be more cringe than it would be pragmatic. I have this dream of doing a free instructional series called “fighting for people who probably aren’t going to practice” where I go over things that might save your skin in a protest. For example, you’d want to know how to escape from bottom of mount and how to fall properly. I’d want to explain why you’re better off tripping someone with your poor form than you are punching someone with your poorly crafted punches.

Along the same vein of my labors of love maybe hopefully contributing to the one just fight, my novels always have to have communists portrayed in them in a positive light. Sometimes I’m crafting fantasy worlds where I can have a country with communism being pitted against a capitalist society or a continent with two communes and a kingdom. I have a third of a first draft of a dystopian+hopium future where 100 years have passed since current day. The main character is a who was raised by lefties somewhere in the western US. The MC is profoundly disinterested in politics and never really explores or desires a context for why there’s an eastern US, a western US, a no-mans-land republic of Texas, and less than 20 entities that call themselves states. All the MC knows is that he hates the eastern US’s corporations, the last hold out of capitalism as we know it, and aims to cyberbully them in the VRMMO that is essentially my retelling of Ready Player One

That’s all I have. If you want to learn anything from me it’s that if you manage to find something that interests you in this life then you should run after it and cherish it. Say thank you for the days that it fills your life with colors and look fondly at memories of it on gray days.