Naw, screw that - we need more people trying to make this place fun. If by some chance it is Ottawa, I’m sure they’d find receptive folks at The Dom/House of Targ/Arts Court/The Mayfair/Rainbow/AskAPunk/Tuesday Club/PROBE/One of the festival committees (except poutine and rib)/Spectrasonic/Awesome Ottawa/Canada Council for the Arts/White Rabbit/SPAO/One of the Zine collectives/Gladstone Theatre/Ottawa Little Theatre/Brass Monkey, for some reason/T’s Pub/Swizzles/Enriched Bread/Absolute Comedy/Cafe Dekcuf/that one house in Barrhaven (iykyk)/CKCU/CHUM/probably quite a few others I’m not aware of. Heck, you could bug the Night Mayor, what exactly is he up to these days?

It all really comes down to what you consider fun. Are you going to have the same degree of options as you would in Montreal and Toronto? No. But if you want fun, there’s things to do, places to check out, people to meet and a not-insignificant number of folks who want more of these.

Off the top of my head:

1. Start researching your local ordinances and bylaws. Like someone mentioned here, there might be a reason your town dies after 2200.
2. Think about the kind of things you want to see in terms of nightlife. Does that mean live music? Block parties? Techno night at the clurb? Kink stuff (seriously)? Theatrical performances? Hash and coffee socials (sort of a joke, but thinking through the logistics of such a thing has been my daydream du jour recently)? Etc.
3. Find others who would be interested in the kind of stuff you’d like for nightlife activities. Start talking $ and logistics - are there any grants you could try and apply for? Fundraising activities? Where are you going to do this stuff? What do you need in terms of insurance? Do you need to address any pesky bylaws, and can start working with your local government to try and tackle that? And so on.
4. Make a plan and act.

The big starting point is really just defining one or two things you want to see, and working to get to the point where you see them. In the course of this you might be surprised by what you find (someone mentioned good ol’ Ottawa, ON as an image of the place you’re describing - but there’s actually a decent amount of stuff, both above- and underground, you can find when you start poking around).

What up, fellow Ottawan?

Trying to dive into the local music scene was my approach - mostly because I suck at trivia.

If you are are doing any kind of learning (as a citizen or registered student) your local librarian, particularly your local academic librarian, is your best friend and you just don’t know it yet. Introduce yourself, and come with questions.

But don’t neglect your public librarians either - that light I saw in their eyes when asking about an obscure service they offered stuck with me.

Concerned Children’s Advertisers and WarAmps put out some amazing PSAs back in the day.

See the house that Corel built, and weep ['cause it throws taste right out of the window]

I’m more than a little convinced that if Jesus walks the earth today, he is really into EDM and you’re only really coming across him on the festival circuit.

It’s definitely not for everyone, but I’ve met a small number of disabled people who do exactly this, for similar reasons.

Wouldn’t offer it as a suggestion though, kinda feel like people have to come to that decision on their own.

Want to second “Talk to the career counseling office” - you are paying for it, and they really want you to get a good job so it can add to your school’s/programs clout. Use it!!

Thanks man! This is helpful.

When we talked last, I was talking about the social aspects (crudely understood) of it all - have general mistrust of experts, poor life situation, feelings of, or acutal, social isolation -> find people who seem to have a privileged knowledge others don’t that you agree with, make them your tribe -> have a position in a social group, slowly introducing you to more and more outlandish ideas -> repeat points to recruit others to the tribe and signal social value to said.

So agree totally with learning about how this stuff works from psychology and human weakness POV being a vital starting point. Appreciate it!

So I’ve got a buddy of mine who is really, really interested in doing some sort of media project re: fighting disinfo campaigns - like to the point that he’s scheduling calls with me to help talk him through this, after not talking for years.

I don’t know shit, approach disinfo by ignoring 90% of what I see online, and am trying to help narrow him down into something actionable.

Any advice? Like, literally anything - at this point I’m starting from a “What is disinfo v. misinfo, and what are organizations concerned about disinfo in a broad sense saying about the topic” position.

Edit: Media project - started out as “a podcast maybe”, now he thinks longform mediums aren’t an effective strategy and is talking Tik Tok videos or something. My concern is this is just adding to the noise we all dig through that disinfo benefits from. He still hasn’t given me ideas re: a particular topic, think he’s just frustrated about some close people to him getting deep into COVID/QAnon conspiracies and not responding to anything he tried re: getting well-sourced info in front of them - there was always some bullshit counterpoint.

Apologies for the novel - want to help him out but a little stuck.

If you have an issue with a given community, find or start an alternative one on another instance. If you have an issue with how your instance deals with anyone, sign up for a different instance.

I urge you to consider this before giving up on Lemmy entirely, it’s kind of the beauty of the federated services.

I have not had a number pad on my keyboard for some time :( I remember this arcane magic

You kid, but as an Canadian Anglophone, this is what I do any time I have to send an email to someone with a French name with an accented character.

Yes, I know the special character menu is a thing, but I have shit to do.

I feel like you’d enjoy orienteering as a hobby (assuming you also like the woods).

Doing an old school car trip with your location turned off on your phone could be cool too, assuming no impatient passengers.

https://youtu.be/ojQ3bGgtz3A

Edited link for the better song choice

The Internet is a communication tool used the world over where people can come together to bitch about movies and share pornography with one another.

Or, at least it was. Now it’s mostly a mall and organ harvesting operation.

I’m in no better spot, but this is the crux of the problem, isn’t it - too many of us don’t have a strongly-enough bound local community to get assistance with stuff like this without involving the cops.

I just turned 35 a couple of days ago, and this is currently on my mind. I need to make some serious changes, 40 cannot be the same as ages 25 to present.

Like, not even talking financially (though that’d be nice) - I mean like finding people who aren’t family to hang out with once and a while, smoking less weed/other means of being clearer minded more often, broadening my horizons and participation in meatspace, that kind of thing.

Brain - Candied
Tapeworm - Fed
Heads - Crushed
Chicken- Ladied

Take that, atheists 😎