Leave the brains alone.

Sand and lack of oil.

Smart ass replies aside, if I’m low on sleep, anything - and I do mean anything - has the potencial to grind my gears.

I don’t like the guy that much either, for whatever that may mather.

You’re right on the mark there: I missed the point, a good number of times, which sent me into a downward spiral.

It took a good amount of time and help to aknowledge I was responsible for 90% of my suffering.

And I was countering your reply.

So you try, you get turned down. Does it hurt? Yes. Is it the end of the world? If anyone replies with “yes” that is a serious issue because it is not.

Getting a “no” for an answer is almost guaranteed. What is there to lose? Perhaps the lost “yes” for not trying.

Bullshit.

It’s a social - stupid - standing that states romantic/social/sexual advances must be started by the male part, which automatically relegates the female part to a passive/subdued part.

If you want someone, be bold. Doesn’t matter how you define yourself either.

I don’t really care if you are shy and can’t speak or any coping mechanism you may have built to justify your awkwardess. Just try.

Write a note. Have a mutual friend act as a liaison to help the first step. Write a letter. Blurt out the most incoherent speech you can muster. Then say it all again, only ten times slower. Send smoke signals. Use a parrot or a crow. But try.

It hurts a lot more to punish yourself for not trying, later in your life. Failure and rejection are part of it. Get used to it. Learn from it.

Okay.

Now that we already know we are pretty much at the hands of one pupeteer, what options are there?

I already read about Kagi (apologies if mispelled) but I like to write as a hobby and 300 searches per month go fast.

What other options are there?

Edit:

For those who may be arriving now:

• Kagi seems to be a good option for an alternative search engine; it is a paid service, for which I don’t have the €€€ right now. Many speak very well about it.
• SearXNG is a thing as well, to my understanding a decentralized search system. Worth the try, in my opinion. If it’s something that is decentralized, it is worthy to support and divulge.
• There is mojeek.com, supposedly not very good but any option that goes against the monopoly is worth the try! I’m going to try this one.
• Brave.com is an option but is a bit shady.
• You should try Ecosia if you want to support reforestation efforts. Read somewhere in the thread it is part of the Bing ecosystem.
• Yep is a thing as well. Somewhere in the thread, a lemmy points they use the search results for AI trainning. So… That is that.
• And it seems there is a search engine by the name of dogpile.com.
• Startpage is another search engine (portal?) suggested by another user. I’ve used it before and like it. Read somewhere it somehow piped a standard google search but removed tracking and ads.
• and I just remembered Presearch.com. This is a really shady one (crypto warning!) that I suspect is a fork/collab with Brave Browser. I’ve used it, they have reward-per-search reward system (or had) where they give you crypto for every search. Good results, some that don’t come up neither on DDG nor Google.

p.p.s Should I start categorizing these from “shady” to “worthy”?

p.p.s 2 Does anyone remember StumbleUpon? I know it was never a search engine to begin with but it was the best source of good internet content I ever got acquainted to.

Can we get something like that back?

It’s obviously not a good thing but, in this particular case, it was the cheating promoting a very wholesome outcome.

The cheater got the boot. The cheated got ahead in life.

Game. Set. Match.

I do not care how true or untrue this may be.

Upvote for wholesome.

Titanic is not a good movie.

Can someone explain this “trend” with asking someone’s height and it being an elimination factor?

Because this is the equivalent to the “big boobs” factor but only more obvious.