5434a
7mo ago
That's pretty much what I assumed. Most of the flatpack and flatpack adjacent furniture I've had has been chipboard with a laminate or veneer surface, but I'm pretty sure our kitchen cupboard doors are MDF underneath the protective thermofoil finish because like you say they're from a place that prioritises volume and efficiency over craftsmanship. The galaxy brain is building that bulk business and the brainlet is shrugging and saying "it's a cupboard door, what else matters" while us midwits seethe about how phony it is.
I've been warming to plywood on the basis of cost x simplicity x skill level but unless I found a niche use for MDF like complex shaping (I remember using it to build terrain for WH40k when I was a kid) then I just can't bring myself to willingly choose it. It's so soft and heavy, and the moment it gets a drop of water on it it turns into cardboard. That's before having to worry about the clouds of hazardous dust. But yeah, maybe if I was building cupboard doors that would get painted anyway or a sacrificial top for a workbench it might be the sound choice. OSB I just think of as subfloor or a very quick and dirty wall material.
5434a
7mo ago
I'd compare 3x3 Custom or Matt Estlea vs. RexKruger or StumpyNubs. They're all writing for hobbyist or small business readers (hence the lack of MDF)
As an aspiring hobbyist can you explain what you mean by the lack of MDF? Is this one of those midwit bell curves where both the complete beginner and the dark sith master agree that "it's brown and it's cheap lol" while the midwit wastes time trying to craft solid wood into an equally smooth flat panel, or something?
5434a
7mo ago
Still reading Brothers Karamazov. Like Crime & Punishment the pace rises the further through the book I get but following 2rafa's comment that it's one of the funniest books she's ever read and hearing from friends that different translations can have substantially different tones I'm worried that the MacDuff translation I chose blindly is one of the more pedestrian translations. I'm not reading it twice but switching translation halfway could be an amusing option, the last section I read where Dmitry goes on a spree would probably make a good point to transition by just re-reading from that part on.
It looks like a user-side problem with the Old Reddit Redirect extension:
https://old.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/164uqjg/why_do_ireddit_image_links_go_to_that_ancient/
https://old.reddit.com/r/bugs/comments/15p1ctt/why_does_clicking_any_image_on_reddit_open_the/
https://github.com/tom-james-watson/old-reddit-redirect/issues/99
Developer says it's fixed but as suggested on the Github page I removed and reinstalled the already updated addon and still have the problem.
5434a
7mo ago
That link lands on a removed commment under a photo of Lady Gaga wearing an orrery as a hat.
5434a
7mo ago
I totally agree with the broad thrust of your post, just pointing out that The Lego Movie is the rare example that justifies its use of 3D and CGI where something like Toy Story, another genuinely good 3D CGI film, could quite conceivably have been rendered freehand in golden era 2D style without any great loss, and probably faster and for a smaller budget - it's the script, the characters and the top tier voice actors that make Toy Story good, the CGI was a technical novelty.
You can't render complex mathematically accurate physics in freehand - and I'm not saying I'm certain they did in TLM - and that's okay because 99% of the time you don't need to to tell a story. But if you want a convincing effect of a tidal wave of tiny Lego pieces crashing over a Lego city, a box full of loose pieces being exploded, or a Lego model that accurately models the qualities of the real product then CGI is going to give a "better" result, and faster. I'm not actually sure it would be cheaper though, 3D rendering is notoriously intensive and the credits for that film are vast.
A talented artist certainly could draw something that looks like a lot of Lego pieces interacting, but the emphasis is on like. CGI will be more immersive for that use even if perhaps it's less graphically expressive in its line-work and frame advances. A hand drawn Lego Movie would give you the "what if you could draw Lego coming to life" feeling where CGI is that much closer to "what if Lego could come to life". The artificial plastic-ness of Lego is an ideal match for the blandness of CGI where something like The Jungle Book or Lion King remakes will fall into the uncanny valley by trying to make singing animals look realistic (I assume, I haven't watched either of them).
In short putting aside cost, speed and effort I think The Lego Movie really would be at the very best no better if it was made without CGI.
5434a
7mo ago
The Lego Movie plays to the strengths of 3D CGI on account of the subject being made of countless tiny pieces of uniform rigid 3D shapes. I imagine it was a huge effort to make in CGI, never mind trying to do it freehand.
5434a
7mo ago
Wouldn't it make more sense to get a cross trainer if you're training for a hike? In my mind a heavy backpack and a basic step would offer better training if a cross trainer isn't practical. Park it in front of the TV and put on a film. Pour some ice in your boots for added realism. I cycle more than I walk and I notice that a comparatively short walk will leave my legs stiff where doing a longer distance on a bike would have no effect.
Re insulation, I'd guess you'll want multiple layers of natural fibre socks that range from tight-woven silk as a base through to merino outer socks, maybe with cashmere inbetween for extra insulation. Sounds extravagant but it beats losing your toes. Not sure that insulating the outside is wise as they'll get bulky and awkward to manoeuvre, presumably the priority there ought to be making them waterproof. I don't know anything about arctic hiking though, just working from basic principles. IIRC from watching Ray Mears the ultimate footwear for traversing ice and snow is the trad snowshoe with real fur moccasins.
Speaking of pouring ice in your boots it might be worth getting used to taking cold showers too.
Out of interest how much hiking and camping experience do you have?
5434a
7mo ago
1-1 is about 60% of how I socialise with my friends. I like to see them all at least once a quarter but some I see more often than others.
Usually it starts with a short text message or a phone call. Sometimes we drop by each other's houses if we're in the area, sometimes we go out to a pub or restaurant, sometimes we go to the cinema or a gig together, sometimes if the weather is good we sit in the park with a beer or four. Maybe do some casual sport like golf or bowling or host a barbecue or a bonfire if we can get a group together. That kind of stuff.
5434a
7mo ago
I've been using a rooted Nook Simple Touch for about 10 years. All I do is copy epubs to it and read them. Any minor features that I feel it's missing probably are available, but they're so minor that I don't need them enough to work out how to add and configure them. The screen is a bit grey but this is my first and only e-reader so I don't have anything to compare it to. I've never had a problem reading it.
The only major bug is that if I use the thumbnail library viewer rather than the list library viewer it will somehow drain the battery in less than 24 hours. If I don't do that the battery lasts for about two months. Occasionally the touch feature will drift out of calibration but that's fixed in 20 seconds by soft powering off and running my finger round the edge of the screen. I bought a cover for it which has kept it in good condition but the button cover on the button I use to turn the page has been worn through.
Over all would recommend, I'd happily buy another if I lost mine. I've just checked and there have been newer ROMs released since I rooted mine but if it ain't broke why fix it?
5434a
7mo ago
Textbook fluent native is:
"Alright?"
"Alright?"
It's like "what's up?". It could be interpreted as a sincere question if you're not familiar with it as a greeting but the context typically indicates that they're not making a genuine query.
5434a
7mo ago
From the other side "hey" doesn't make much sense as a greeting as it's central meaning here would be to call attention to someone or something eg. "Hey, watch out for that hole!", "Hey, over here!" or "Hey! You pulled a trick on me!".
5434a
7mo ago
It's worth getting Stories Of Your Life And Others too. There's quite a bit of overlap in the included stories but the variations are worth the duplications.
5434a
7mo ago
Women appear more psychologically threatening than physical adversity, hence the procrastination and post-Hock rationalisation.
Mountains are static and predictable.
5434a
7mo ago
It's a truism but they're going where men don't. All those activities that you'd never consider, and if you did you would dismiss as at the best a bit girly. The girlier the activity the more women will be there and the less men will want to go even in the knowledge the there are lots of women there. At the top end you have "wellness" classes that counsel eating as the salve for your neuroses, or losing weight and getting fit by sitting still and breathing. There'll be a few men there. At the far end you have a club for knitting bootees for premature babies. They won't be at the model railway hot sauce tournament, where even if you're not remotely interested in those things you probably wouldn't be uncomfortable if you washed up there by chance.
Adding on to your spear-not-net fishing advice, the most pragmatic suggestion I can think of would be shops, specifically food shops and supermarkets. Firstly you have to go there anyway. Second you can probably get some indication (and give some indication) of who is more likely to be single by whether they have a basket and are browsing the wine section or if they have a trolley and they're loading it up with mascot breakfast cereal and lunchables. You can somewhat narrow the demographics by time of day too - retirees, school mums, working lunchers, unemployeds, school mums again, working diners, weekly family shoppers, then finishing with evening drinkers - or by swapping the supermarket for the health food shop or the bijou bakery. To some degree the times and places that you shop will naturally select for your own matching demographic. And third you have a lot of opportunities for open-ended casual interactions and brief conversation starters, and the people are in flux so there's less of a weird sense of imposition in sparking those brief conversations that there might be in a bar or cafe where people sit at one table for the duration of their visit.
If it's going to succeed though I'd say it's probably best approached as a low stakes strategy where the expected outcome is weighed heavily towards buying the ingredients for a nice meal, weighed moderately to sharing a pleasant moment with a stranger, and minimal expectation placed on landing the woman of your dreams after five minutes cruising the bog roll aisle. The advantage is that you get endless repeat chances plus the opportunity to raise your culinary skills in the meantime. You also have a baked-in face-saving retreat of the need to complete your shopping the moment any promising interaction risks becoming awkward, unlike a bar where you might have just bought a fresh drink or a social group that doesn't finish for another hour or more. It's a bit like talking to someone in the street but without the sense of interrupting their travel.
[Caveat: I've never done this but I have had pleasant interactions with women in the supermarket regardless, and I'm an introvert with resting fuck-off face who lives in a fairly socially reserved area and skates through the shop on rails to get out the door as soon as possible.]
It's something I've had happening with archive.ph since forever. Not sure what the issue is.
Edit: Took five minutes to look into a bit and other reports point to it being due to my using Cloudflare for DNS lookups. There's a workaround posted at https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/118haqg/archiveph_webpage_archive_as_site_is/jwhqbsh/ but I don't care enough to go digging in my network's config to apply it right now.
5434a
8mo ago
I'd like to read the whole article but archive.ph loops on the captcha page. Does anyone have a workaround, or can copy and paste the text here?
5434a
8mo ago
There's now a direct economic incentive for comparatively ordinary women to be aware of and cater to men's desires [...] And men are, thus, getting the signal that it is fine to ask women to do these things
True, but...
women know precisely what men want in a sexual partner and are willing to provide it... but only outside the context of a committed relationship.
...your mistake is conflating the narrow context of participating on OnlyFans with the far broader context of "outside a committed relationship". Any OnlyFans user who is confused about this will likely find it clarified the first time he tries to transfer his experience to Tinder where, instead of having his requests to see a pretty girl's bumhole happily accommodated (for a price), he will be blocked and reported. At that point the man's expectations should be suitably recalibrated.
There's probably a parallel miscalibration where some men will treat OnlyFans performers as if they were actually on Tinder by trying to force the interaction into the frame of an intimate relationship. The difference is that the OF performers are incentivised to play along to keep the simpbucks rolling in. That seems like a bigger risk of distorting men's impressions about what is normal.
5434a
8mo ago
The same reason I said no to the guy who pulled up alongside me while I was walking down the road and offered to give me a Cartier watch: it reeks of bait.
I still don't know what the attached string was in that instance because I told him I already had a watch and walked away, but I'd guess it would get parlayed into helping him out with something that involved me handing over a sum of money on the basis that he'd already helped me and besides I'd still come out quids in so why not, fair's fair, thought you were a friendly person, is this how you treat people who want to help you, etc.
So yeah, he gives them $500. But he's still using them as a means to an end, so they're still at least half right in their scepticism.
5434a
8mo ago
He explained in the Small Scale Questions thread that it's slang for being thrown/cast, in this case being cast into the wilderness.
5434a
8mo ago
I have no idea, that's the question isn't it. But if you can entertain the idea that there are women who aren't doing as well as they could because some women are social fuck ups too then it stands to reason there should be practical measures they can take to improve their outcomes. It could range from acknowledging the fertility window, to the poor dating prospects for single mothers, to making an effort to understand what most men want and don't want, through to basic stuff like how to flirt (put the damn phone down!), how to write more than three words on a dating site, and, like I said about PUA, what not to do.
Somewhere out there are women who think that collecting rescue animals, wearing dungarees, spending all day on tumblr and exclusively using photos of themselves in a group of 8 isn't hurting their chances. Moaning about the fact that men like looking at naked women on the internet isn't helping them. Neither is holding on to the idea that there's an athletic, high achieving career focused man who is yearning to take a single mother and her children on an all expenses paid round the world adventure, if only he'd hurry up and find her. "Men are even worse than you thought" is not what they need to hear. Otherwise they'll fall into the MGTOW cope trap where they spend 24/7 thinking about how awful the opposite sex while claiming they've forsworn any interest in them.
5434a
8mo ago
I have no evidence but I have a very strong hunch that the practical aspects of PUA were almost directly ported over from sales.
Actually I do have a piece of evidence: the way early PUA schemes were marketed showed a marked influence from the web 1.0 sales landing pages (single page, very long, repetitive endorsements from customers, repeated prompts to enter an email for the free book, etc). Also the use of sales terminology like "opening" and "closing".
I suppose it makes sense. You have young men doing sales, making decent money by using a few choice manipulation mechanisms. They decide first to switch to selling their selves to women, and then when it's shown that it works proceeding to selling their techniques back into the market. I think the innovative part of PUA was incorporating evo-psych to explain and contextualise why and how it works.
I think that's what makes FDS such an embarrassment; they show zero curiosity for figuring out what works, why it works, or even whether it works. They're stuck in a blend of basic "diet + cosmetics" magazine tier advice mixed with an internet flavoured radical feminism of pathologising, well, not even masculinity but more the failures of masculinity (porn brain, erectile dysfunction, general "scrote"-ness etc). For people who spend so long in front of the mirror they show a distinct lack of self-reflection. PUA tells men to stop doing what they're doing and do the difficult things they've been avoiding. FDS tells women to keep doing the same thing only more so.
Half the value of PUA is in simply learning what to avoid doing. You don't necessarily have to sell your soul, you can make a big improvement by ceasing to sabotage yourself with rose-tinted romanticism.
Can't speak for women but I imagine they're somewhat impressed by competency and leadership/status, and one route to that competency and status is to do things that no other man has been brave, foolish or pig-headed enough to do before and succeed*.
Once success is demonstrated the unorthodoxy cashes out among men as being a pioneer. And now hundreds of thousands (millions?) of men admire people like Rodney Mullen for something as pointless and trivial as mastering standing on the wrong side of a skateboard. It's the "people said it couldn't be done" factor. And that status among men is in turn what cashes out as making an impression on women.
In this case it would only work if Skookum can lever his expedition into the likelihood of consistently impressing men within the social awareness cone of women at a degree proportional to the risk of freezing to death. That's very dubious, and that's what really makes it
stupidsuboptimal. I mean, if he comes back with pics and maps to post and a gripping tale of high jeopardy that he pursued in spite of everyone here near unanimously telling him it was dangerously misguided, I think that counts as some variety of impressive. But that doesn't cash out easily oustide The Motte, and it all turns on a not inconsiderable "if".* If they don't succeed they often fail catastrophically, which I think is something like Skookum is pointing at when he brings up the honour factor of how in his eyes it might be a better society if socially unsuccessful men died trying, because at least they're trying and if they die then they die with the honour of pursuing some variety of success (and society has relieved itself of something it didn't value anyway). Very Gattaca.
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