• 46 Posts
  • 1.25K Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: June 23rd, 2023

help-circle


  • It could just be because I’m older or because we have the internet now but when I was growing up, becoming the president of the United States was the most high profile, respected, and rewarding jobs someone could aim for. It was the “gold standard”. Now, I can’t imagine anyone saying to their kid, “you can be anything you want one day, even the president”. The office of the president is a joke.

    Even if someone I were to fully support became president, everything is fucked now. The country is so polarized that there’s just a winning team and a losing team. There is no president who can bring everyone together and make things “great again”. No matter what a president does, the media and the citizens of the internet are going to twist reality to make all actions and statements support their narrative. I don’t see a way out of it.


  • Using an alarm to wake up. Actually, I got rid of all electronics in my bedroom aside from lights.

    I had a coffee situation many years ago. I was having heart palpitations (skipping a beat) while sitting at rest and my doctor said the 20 ounces of coffee I drank was way too much. I have never believed him but I did cut back just in case. In recent years, I’ve observed that the more I get some regular amount of exercise in, those palpitations go away. I started going for walks and also noticed my at-rest heart rate drop noticeably. And, while few to begin with, anxiety attacks went away. I usually drink a 10 ounce cup of coffee in the morning - freshly ground, aeropress, black. A bit more on the weekends. Never past 10am.

    The next issue I have regarding better sleep is breaking my habit of being enthralled with digital content. I read too much on my iPad at night. Been trying to read physical books and magazines more but the dopamine addiction is rough.

    Additionally, I’ve been from trying to be more proactive and get shit done asap to leave more time for being bored. I believe boredom leaves time for creativity and leisure and better sleep. There’s just far too much to distract us from existing as calm and creative human beings today.


  • Here’s an example of how I perceived something incorrectly based on social media.

    All the posts I saw were about how “MS13” was photoshopped on his hand - as if to suggest they were actual tattoos.

    Apparently, what I’ve only just now inferred from watching this video, the overlayed text shown in the photo is a label for each of the real tattoos.

    So, on one hand (no pun intended), you have a story about Trump believing photoshopped letters are real tattoos and on the other hand you have a story about whether the interpretation of the tattoos is correct to be MS13 related.

    This reporter did a shit job. Trump offered to get the picture out and he blew the chance to get the facts straight on this hot topic - do you believe the letters “MS13” are actually tattooed on his hand or are you saying they’re the interpretation of the tattoos below them.

    EDIT: rewatching the video and caught the moron saying “he had MS as clear as you can be. Not interpreted.” I mean… ya know, I honestly worry that we will ever come out of this in a good shape. Will we ever again have respect for the office of the presidency? Can we ever again elect someone who represents the best of us?


  • I’d be interested to hear from the youngest generation (15-20 YO) to hear if they care about this at all.

    I’m approaching 50 years old and had been an early adopter most of my adult life. Growing up from the 1980s through 2000s, there was a near-mainstream narrative that we were living in a unique era of emerging technologies. It was exciting and we were anxious for anything new.

    It seems to me that nothing is really new and there is nothing exciting, if not interesting, about technology today.

    I’ve actually been stripping down the technology from my life as it’s become too distracting to get things done and has prevented personal growth and the formation of memories. For one example, I recently subscribed to a print magazine because I prefer a tangible object that I can associate with in and of itself (and choose to own and collect).

    Looking at analog trends like vinyl records and film photography and cassette tapes, it seems like people are at least trying to incorporate tangible objects into a modern lifestyle. Then you have the trend of the dumb phones which indicate people are becoming more aware of the detriments caused by an always connected lifestyle. Thankfully, some car manufacturers are returning buttons to their cars in response to owner feedback about everything being a touch screen.

    I mean, I’m not a multi-trillion dollar organization with different departments studying the feasibility of future products but I do wonder if something like AR glasses are already more of our past than our future.

    I think there’s a more than reasonable desire for a device to help you through your day - especially in foreign countries. But do you think you want that to be glasses or something else?

    Lastly, this reminds me of the prediction from Michio Kaku in Physics of the Future about augmented reality contact lenses. Should we at least accept AR glasses as first step towards contact lenses? Do you think society would accept these 20-40 years in the future?



  • The only people who should be worried about this conversation are therapists and philosophers.

    Our culture is fucking with people’s heads by making them have to question shit like this. Words are made up (you should look up some definitions). Our emotions are not. No one should be judging anyone for whom they find attractive and no one should feel shame or pride for having a preference.

    So why would people who are attracted to cis people (of a particular sex) and not trans people (of the opposite sex-assigned-at-birth to the sex they’re attracted to) necessarily be transphobes.

    This is not a thing. At all. Just because I prefer red apples over green apples does not instill a phobia or hatred of green apples.

    The LGBT movement, as with nearly all movements, is about education. It seems you may have skipped over the prerequisites jumped right to LGBT 201.

    Yes, “It’s obviously a nuanced subject, and human sexuality is complex” and the point is that no one should be casting societal assumptions upon or judging anyone. The point is to mind your own business and support government legislation that protects marginalized groups from the ignorant and those who lack empathy. “Do no harm” shouldn’t be regulated to practicing doctors. We’ve all lost sight of the “treat others as you want to be treated” Golden Rule. So, mind your own business and treat others with the same respect you believe you deserve.

    If you are personally struggling with your own sexuality, I would strongly suggest you seek guidance from a professional rather than pondering aloud on the internet and expecting validation. If you are struggling to understand the sexuality of others, I would suggest you stop trying and embrace the uniquenesses found in every corner of this planet.



  • I stopped going because they lock everything I want to buy behind a window.

    I know that’s not explicitly related to this article but it pisses me the fuck off because I am literally an eight minute walk to a Target and would go there all the time if they weren’t so dead set on making the experience the worst ever.

    It’s evident that they’re pushing people to make online purchases (where they can show you ads and get your info from an app) to pick up in store or have delivered.

    They’re also pushing customers to use the self check out system. This costs them less money than employing a person. Well, when the self check out machine breaks or people are buying a lot of stuff or when it’s a busy holiday or weekend, the line is stupid long and there’s no choice other than to walk out of the store (which I have done three times).

    Target needs to hire more people and to pay them a fair wage. This will reduce theft due to staff walking the aisles and increase the sense of shopping on a planet that’s inhabited by human beings. The place is a shit hole ghost town that feels like a dystopian nightmare.

    I mean, this has been an issue for four years. At first, I had assumed that they were intentionally trying to devalue their brand. Now with this DEI thing, I am convinced.

    Fuck you, Target.

    Also fuck self check outs. They were novel at first but they fucking suck cock. I will not go to a store that doesn’t have the option to engage with a human. The last time I gave it a shot, the very first item I scanned was rejected. I put all my shit back in my cart and the one person there to “help” asked what was wrong and I said never again will I ever use self check out. It’s a failed system. It threatens people’s jobs. It doesn’t help you do anything. It doesn’t save time.

    Sorry. Downvote me. I just really hate today’s retail environment.


  • Not worrying about how others perceive you and having something interesting to share with others is not contradictory.

    I don’t have to like you or agree with you to listen to something you feel passionate about to share. Have you heard of YouTube?

    If you’re weird and you have nothing interesting to share, if you lack the confidence to speak with others, then I’m not very likely to give you much attention.

    Learning something “so others will like you” is exactly what I’m suggest you do not do. You should learn something so that you have personal confidence in something. The more you become proficient in something, the more confident you’ll become overall. Accomplishing goals and overcoming obstacles breeds confidence. It may help your social interactions if that thing is less niche and more universal but not exclusively.

    This is why people ask others what they do for a living. They want to hear you speak about something they presume you’re passionate about. There’s a hope to engage in a conversation or to learn something from you. If you have some niche hobby or job and you’re good at it, people will listen to you. You may even find people come up to you at a party to hear more about what you feel so strongly about.

    Don’t ever do something solely because you think it will make others like you more. If you’re not doing it for yourself, you’re not able to put all of yourself into it. You’ll never own that thing. You’ll just be renting it for others.



  • Work first on being a good human.
    That will make you a good (and attractive) man or woman.

    The archaic concept of masculinity or femininity itself is wretched.

    People worry far too much about what others think of them and what mold they should fit into. Be yourself. Be a good, caring, empathetic person with convictions and passions and hobbies. Become proficient in one or more things so others find you interesting. Learn how to do things without the aid of technology. Read books. Travel as far as you can. Give a shit about yourself and your community.

    If you’re struggling to fit a mold that society is telling you you should fit into, you’re already lost. That doesn’t mean you can’t find yourself. It means that mold probably isn’t right for you. And there is nothing wrong with that. If others have a problem with you not being what they expect, that’s their issue to resolve. The sooner you’re able to let go of societal concepts, the more free you’ll be to be the best version of you.

    Don’t confuse being a good man and being a good person. It’s the same thing. There is nothing you can do to become more of a man that won’t make you more of a person.



  • I hardly ever get spam calls. Today, I got a call from a government robocaller and a call asking for someone else whom I’m pretty sure had my number over five years before me. I thought these were legit but now, reading the comments, I’m not so sure.

    People are way too willing to give out their phone numbers. So many apps and websites require a phone before ever signing in. I will not use any service that requires a phone number.

    Because so many things rely on phone numbers now, when I got my new number in 2020 I lost access to a number of things.

    2FA SMS verification can be spoofed so it’s not a secure method.

    The only spam calls or messages I get are from government reps. Apparently “for government use” is not illegal and it’s practically impossible to get taken off the list. If anyone has a tip for this, please let me know.





  • We’re a relatively poor city with an underfunded transportation system. If the city / state invested more money, there would be fewer system failures, cleaner transportation, on time transportation, safer transportation. But that’s not to say it’s entirely up to the municipality to improve the system. It’s to say that there’s a lack of enticement for a lot of people. If more people rode the system, we would see improvements.

    There needs to be a huge revamp of the system with the key card being just the start of it. Perhaps the new signage will help too. The larger issue is PR. You’re not going to get people from outside the city to ride in (ie: 76ers place) when all the news reports they see are about the bad things that happen on the subway.

    SEPTA needs to be branded as the life blood of the city and marketed to everyone regardless of your financial situation. Philly’s also a small city so you’re more likely than in larger cities to rub elbows with people from a variety of personal situations, for better or worse.

    What’s frustrating to me is that I have family who live outside the city but close to a rail line (Trenton / East Trenton). They’re hesitant to drive into the city because of a lack of parking. I have tried to get them to park at their local station and to ride the train in. I was doing it for a solid four years for family events when I didn’t have a car. It’s fantastic and I prefer it over driving.

    I also have a friend who lives outside the city but near a regional rail station. He and his wife both work in the city just blocks from a subway station. They choose to sit in traffic over sharing public transportation. Part of it is convenience, some of it is the shared company, some of it is the unreliability. It blows my mind that someone would go out of their way and choose to drive the Schuylkill twice a day over having a leisurely pre and post work day experience.

    The main thing that prevents me from riding SEPTA more often is the schedule. I work from home so 99% of the time I’m taking the train it’s on the weekend. The weekend frequency is prohibitive enough that I bought a car.


  • Category View introduces a simple way to organize emails by type

    It wouldn’t be possible for me to overstate how much I dislike this feature. It’s one thing I can’t stand about Gmail and from what I’ve observed, iCloud has this now too. I’m wondering if people actually find this more useful than a hindrance. I mean, I have spent days with several email addresses creating my own filters so I get not everyone can do that. But the way this is typically implemented just seems like another spam mailbox that no one’s going to check.

    I assume they will but if Proton doesn’t have a way to disable this, I am out.

    Manage newsletter subscriptions

    What would actually be cool is a dedicated newsletter app. I use BigNews as an RSS reader and newsletter reader. They give me an email address just for newsletters. It’s fantastic.