pretext /prē′tĕkst″/

noun

• A reason or excuse given to hide the real reason for something.
• Ostensible reason or motive assigned or assumed as a color or cover for the real reason or motive>

Oh, so that’s where the cops get the idea to shoot peoples’ dogs.

FWIW I’d go with seeing if you can get comfortable around him first, as suggested here. I definitely agree that you have to be ready before going on this trip, and hanging out with the dude to get to know him would be a big part of that. Because the truth is, the two of you likely have a some stuff in common and you’d probably get along really well under other circumstances.

If you’re not mad at her anymore, maybe it might help to view him through the lens of someone who makes her happy; there’s also an opportunity here to make a good friend who you can trust to take good care of her and your son if something happens to you. If you do decide to meet up with him, you might even ask her about some things she thinks you might like about him so you have some conversation starters. And, it’s clear that there’s good will on the other side to try and mend fences for the sake of the kid, which speaks well to both his character and that of your ex-wife. They could have just said no and never mentioned it to you, or worse they could have been scheming to cut you out of your son’s life. A holiday invitation kinda says a lot about how they view you, when you think of it like that.

However you decide bud I hope you manage okay through all this, and I do hope you can find a way to be friendly with him. It’s incredibly strong of you to even be considering putting yourself out there like that. As evidenced by most of the comments here, that would not be a common reaction. Good luck!

ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ

But if you earn over the threshold, you’re expected to pay taxes to the US government, no matter where you’re actually living or working, no matter if you’re also paying taxes wherever you currently are. The US is the only country in the world to assert that it has the right to tax its citizens remotely in this manner. It’s not normal.

Probably think it’s equivalent to an announcement in the paper, but a sign on the door is free.

Zen is a fork of Firefox, supports Firefox extensions, and retains the built-in access to the Mozilla extension/theme stores from vanilla Firefox. If you go to install an addon, it even gives a popup to “Add to Firefox”.

It’s a good browser with only minor issues. I’m on Win10; automatic updates don’t always succeed, and it seems like it blocks some communication between the 1password desktop app and the browser extension because I have to sign into each separately. Otherwise, I prefer it to Firefox in pretty much every way.

He won’t, though.

Ooh, good work so far. Love the kinetic text (is that the right term?). Whatcha using? Handbrake?

For wanting to leave a legacy that will last, and a message for anyone or anything that finds it? No, that’s not insane, that’s understandable, I think.

What will determine the insanity quotient is the message you want to inscribe.

Even if all the processing remained on my devices, I still wouldn’t want or trust it. Microsoft could change that policy at any time, claim something like my logging in to my local account constituted agreeing to their new terms, and expose screenshots of my password manager in an unsecured public data store.

Fuck Windows Recall, and fuck Microsoft generally for being so fucking awful to their customers but mainly fuck them for forcing me to finally make good on my threat to switch to Linux. I’ve been using Windows for over thirty years and switching off their spyware for ten, but this is the final straw.

If you knew why you got downvoted you wouldn’t have had to ask. But you asked, and you got an answer; what you think isn’t really relevant.

Must have been run by those parrots

My eyes and ears revealed the double standard, for it was glaring.

The real Satan was Ticketmaster, all along!

You would not believe how many more bags you can fit in that one bag if you fold them, rather than crumple them!

Imagine trying to attack someone for their appearance when there’s a traitor who wants to turn the military on the populace running for president, after he already tried a coup once.

Dementia is a terrible disease.

Just a little Kanchō? As a treat?

He could use it to generate more filled forms to submit!