gakles
9d ago
Isn’t the solution to reduce executive power so whoever wins the next election can’t just destroy whatever’s been built? On the other hand, much of what restrained the executive was convention and tradition, which has been razed in the last 10ish years. This would force policy to become constructive instead of spoils based. I’m not exactly hopeful those in power (and the voters) will choose deescalation.
gakles
9d ago
My position of authority on this subject is pretty weak (1 american polisci class) so take this with a grain of salt.
I agree that fiscal responsibility is a component of right wing ideology, but I want to point out that the deficit is not just enlarged by govt spending but also by tax expenditures. When the govt encourages certain actions through tax deductions (say a student loan deduction) its losing potential revenue. Trumps 2017 tax bill reduced the fed revenue by an estimated 1.9 trillion over the following 10 years. Also studies (Tax Policy Center) say it didnt end up paying for itself. In this way the deficit can be expanded through means besides dems funding trans operas in latin america.
gakles
16d ago
I'm home from college and it's looking like this summer is going to be a struggle, health wise. While it's nice to move back in with the parents and catch up with old friends, it's not nice to be back at the local gym, which has a single digit amount of machines and a single squat rack. So that sucks, but I have a decent pullup bar setup at home and I can get back into calisthenics. On the other hand, I have no clue how I'm going to control my food consumption. At college, I had unlimited swipes at a cafeteria which was open every day from 7am to 10pm, and I could grab chicken and rice or make a wrap whenever I wanted. Now that I'm home, I'm limited to whatever is in the fridge, which last I checked was a bunch of yogurt, tapioca, and some uncooked fajitas. Also, my mom has this bizzare compulsion to acquire sweet snacks which she doesn't even really eat, but which are tantalizingly available to me throughout the day (as I'm hanging out at home a lot). First it was See's Candies to celebrate me coming home, then it was cookies from a friend, and tomorrow theres going to be a cake from some relatives. It's not her fault and shes not doing it on purpose but it's just annoying that so many unhealthy sweets and always available to me. The college cafeteria had a baked goods section but I would always ignore it, and I wasn't studying 20 feet from it. I've already talked with my mom about stocking the fridge with more protein, and the fajita mix is a step in the right direction (once I cook it tomorrow) but its a pain that my (very successful) routine has been so thoroughly disrupted. I am enjoying the home cooked meals though :)
gakles
25d ago
Yesterday I went for a bench PR with my friend, who I started going to the gym with. I did 175lb for 1 which I'm pretty proud of. When I first started benching four months ago I could barely do 135x1, the empirical growth in strength has been really neat to experience. The experience of benching is so different from everything else I do in day-to-day life, the absolute physical struggle, with very little way to cheat form-wise feels so pure in a way that very little else does.
gakles
1mo ago
Your point about knowledge of tools being an effort multiplier is so true. I can't count the times when I've spent hours pluggin away at some geometry for a 5 minute tutorial to show a tool just an icon away that does what I wanted perfectly. I got the autodesk license through my high school's "Intro to animation" class which was pretty unserious, the teacher showed us some general animation techniques (rotoscope, some photoshop stuff) and then second semester pretty much just turned us loose on Maya. Consequently my technique is pretty awful and the edge/vertexes of any of my models would surely make someone who models to make assets scream in terror. I'm much, much closer to the "3 hours" than the "3 years" in this video's thumbnail https://youtube.com/watch?v=XEaoHoH4qf0.
My magnum opus was a Swedish lvkv 9040 which i partially rigged. Here's a link to a short animation I made: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11s1bSzpLSJnz7_a6pG_C7_OgAUAdfrS5/view?usp=share_link If you have a way to view/use .mb files I'll link it here so you can investigate my horrid practices: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X64xO_ntBB5mi5vNSQ3WmhXdEhXSwMVp/view?usp=share_link
The only other thing I can find right now is a short video I made using a mig-25 model I made where I messed around trying to make flares. The flares don't look very flare-like but I'm happy it at least sorta looks like smoke. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sn9iKo5-A0kdspeqOepa5ydOXmXk4FF_/view?usp=share_link
I also made an XM7 (the gun) model and in combination with a barebones human rig I made some (in my opinion) pretty decent POV animations, things like running, reloading, and aiming/shooting. It's also the only model I tried to texture, although that was pretty barebones (rubber grip, gunmetal, tan plastic). I can't find them on my laptop, but maybe they've been preserved somewhere on my desktop. I'll check when I get home next week. Anything you want to show off?
gakles
1mo ago
A few years ago I had a bit of a 3d modelling streak, but I mostly used Maya thanks to my school getting the adobe licenses. I really enjoyed the actual modelling over things like texturing or rigging, and never really learned them. What's motivating you to learn Blender? I was mostly into it to make things I thought were cool (guns, tanks). I've been halfheartedly pondering downloading blender over the summer to try and make some sort of short action scene. What's your current project?
Nothing ever happens ¯\_(ツ)__/¯
More seriously, I would like to believe that everyone has enough skin in the game to recognize that the use of nuclear weapons is a bad thing for the globe. Beyond the direct human suffering of New Delhi getting turned into radioactive slag, the memes are at least partially true, nobody wants a trillion Indian/Pakistani refugees so the rest of the world et al. will do their damnedest to prevent nukes from flying. But maybe the interest of everyone else in the world isn't enough and Modi lets fly. Historical Events seem to be occurring more and more often.
gakles
1mo ago
I'll admit, I did a bit of digging and found the ReLOVEution manifesto (You might want to work on the name, the first few web hits are for a clothing brand). The philosopher who kept recurring to me while reading your text was, of all people, Mozi. I mean, love is in the name, and universal love is his catchphrase. Obviously you guys diverge in practice and application, he was more concerned with the exorbitant cost ritual was imposing on the people and the state, but on the low you guys are coming from the same place: love as the solution to our tumultuous relationship with capital.
How does your universal love work in our factionalized world? I'm doubtful that my love is identical to that of someone in sub-saharan africa, just as his is different from someone in japan. How are we meant to square these conflicting desires? Also, how does universal love replace our existing system? How does empathy for others organize people to build spaceships or even just work long, hot hours harvesting food in the central valley?
I'm guessing you would reject the label of someone rejecting capitalism because that implies your idea would still reside in the greater system of ownership. I do really appreciate your highly unorthodox ideas and would love to engage further.
Overtime comment: Your post reminded me of this comic book in my middleschool that claimed to be a documentation of the development of civilization; one of the opening panels was the invention of the concept of property (via a fertile crescent subsistence farmer locking his wife in his house)
gakles
2mo ago
Two things go into making the 1g/kg achievable for me personally:
- I'm not super tall so I just weigh less than other people
- My university offers an unlimited swipes meal plan and they always have grilled chicken breast. I'm usually hovering around 3 meals a day along with a protein shake.
But lots of other things could interfere with this, I'm just lucky right now and 1g/kg has been working (to the extent that they meet my amateur goals).
gakles
2mo ago
Personally I try to hit 1g/kg but I mostly focus on getting it throughout the day not just a ton during lunch and dinner. I'm pretty amateur tho and not focusing on putting up big numbers.
gakles
2mo ago
I just figured out that the free tier of Geforce Now can run COD warzone. The return to Verdansk event is so incredibly nostalgic, I have many fond memories of this game during covid. A more serious FPS player might take issue with the low performance, but I don't mind. On the second lowest graphics preset I get around 40fps, the lower resolution only becomes an issue when sniping, but even then it's mostly manageable.
The gunplay/tactics feels great to me, there is a nice balance between high ttk and strategy. Half of my kills are coming from outflanking or anticipating what the enemy is going to do next, which feels like a big improvement over previous seasons where fights could be a dps stat check.
gakles
2mo ago
Honestly didn't think of that, and it seems like a shame. This one is only a year old. I'll look into it.
gakles
2mo ago
I had a little party this Friday and woke up to find that someone had stepped on my macbook. I'm partially to blame for this, I shouldn't have left it on the ground (albeit in a room that was supposed to be locked, under my bed) and I don't think anyone will fess up, most likely because they won't remember doing so. Regardless, the tiny 5 millimeter indent on the edge of the case by the webcam managed to strike some sort of achilles heel and almost the entire screen is now non-functional, save a small sliver at the top. This allows me to screen mirror to my ipad (and is how I'm writing this post).
I spent all of yesterday trying to find a place that could fix the screen and found out that nobody in a 1-hour radius has the apple approved replacement for my screen in stock (Small college town in bumfuck nowhere). The nearest Apple store says the screen will be $500, with a $100 labor charge. The compounding issue to all of this is that I don't have a car, and ubers to the medium sized city (an hour away) are like $80 for a one way trip. This means that going to the Apple store adds $160 to anything they do. In fact, it's even worse than this, because they only do overnight repairs, meaning I would have to go to the city, drop off the computer, and then come back the next day to pick it up. The other option is the local computer repair shop, which is only 10 minutes away by bike. However, they are charging an $600 for the screen, and I'm not sure how much for the labor.
Right now, I'll probably go with the ~$700 local process, because it saves me time and is cheaper overall. Does anybody have any other suggestions?
gakles
3mo ago
I need help deciding on some medium term (1-3 month) life goals. I'm a college freshman at (small American liberal arts college) and feel pretty listless right now. I grew up in a pretty rural environment and got in on the condition I spent the first semester studying abroad. I spent said semester in London, attending a joke college and having lots of type 1 fun. I met some great people, hostel-travelled through the Baltics, and lived it up in the city (read: tons of alcohol). While that semester didn't add intellectual development or employability, I do think I grew as a person let off some adolescent male steam.
This semester, the pendulum swung back the other direction and I find myself once again immersed in rural nothingness. The college "town" is so small it's classified as a hamlet. I don't really miss the high life that much and recognise that I'll be able to travel during the summers and once I graduate (and hopefully attend grad school abroad). There is now a sort of void in my life that living in the city filled. While I can still go "out" on Fridays to parties, it just doesn't feel the same, and the reality is I'm not built for the frat life. So I've found myself with a lot of time on my hands and not much to do with it. For the first half of the semester I've been playing video games in my free time but they suck up too much time and attention that I should be using to be productive.
Ideally, whatever goal(s) I set should be achievable in the next 1-3 months, approximately the end of the semester. This is to keep them self-contained, as I plan to spend summer grinding my ass off taking community college courses at home.
Here's a few goals I'm considering, roughly categorized:
Health-I'm 5'10" 150lbs and pretty lean enough that I have abs for the first time in my life. While this is nice, I don't really have much muscle mass or real strength (November-January were a brutal cut). Anything health related has a triple benefit in that it makes me healthier, helps me pull baddies, and makes me feel good.
- Do a muscle up. I've been doing pull-ups regularly since the start of the pandemic and right now my max is about 15. I've never been able to achieve a muscle up and it would be cool to do so. Spending time grinding calisthenics would help me focus and build a my daily routine.
- Really commit to going to the gym 6 days a week. Me and one other scrawny freshman have been going to the gym fairly regularly but I find myself cancelling frequently for various laziness-adjacent reasons. I probably average 3.5x a week right now while he's going 5x. This would again build my daily routine and I would probably also gain muscle.
- Start running again. While most of my life in London was total degeneracy, I consistently ran around 5k 3x a week. My cardio definitely improved and running makes me feel like a better person. Taking this up again would have tangible health benefits and would make my dad proud (He's a big marathon guy).
Career-This is unfortunately a segment of life I'm really lacking in. Right now, I want to be a research biologist, although this might change. My last real work experience was at a frozen yogurt shop in junior year of high school. The only relevant work I've done is a pretty cool biotech class senior year where I learned some simple lab techniques (PCR, SDS-PAGE, cell culture) and the second semester was a small research project (Does Fe16 and ampicillin work synergistically against E. coli? We still don't know!). What I could do in the next three months is kinda ephemeral but could have some solid rewards. It's important to note that I'm at a small liberal arts college so the professors generally do support interested students. Crap I will do but have not done is update my LinkedIn and write a proper resume.
- Local volunteering. Helping kids with STEM stuff at a local middle school would at least put hours and give me something to put on my resume. I like working with kids so this could be fun.
- Network like crazy. I have some relations to people in biotech and it would theoretically be possible to network my way into a summer internship but this seems really unlikely because the internship season is over and I don't have the great charisma this would require.
- There are a few clubs on campus that could be relevant on a resume or that would just benefit me as a worker, things like the public speaking club and the various newspapers. I have also heard that they have a low bar to entry.
- Make the Dean's List. This requires a 3.5 gpa which shouldn't be a huge struggle for me but will require concerted effort and some sacrifice in my quality of life (2am studying).
- I can't actually think of anything else in the short term. My school does do summer research programs and I submitted a form (and talked to the relevant profs) but as a freshman everyone has priority over me. I don't think I'm a horrible candidate compared to other freshman because of the biotech class but I can't compete with people who've taken 300 level classes.
Social-My dad is borderline autistic and I'm an only child, it's only natural that my social skills are stunted. While I can be socially active when around people I know and like, in unfamiliar group settings I can really quickly shut down. Right now, approaching a group of people I don't know unless I'm borderline blackout drunk is damn near impossible for me. Maybe I'm coping but I'm not actually super upset at the status quo because I do have friends and I enjoy their company and don't feel like I need other people. At the same time, starting a semester behind is a bit isolating and it would be nice to get to know the rest of the school.
- Make more guy friends. It's nice to have more dude-bro head nod/dap-up friendships and reaching out to people who aren't part of my in-group (late admit) would be outside my comfort zone. The best way to do this would be to join one of the amateur sports clubs, which also double as party-throwing mechanisms. Right now rugby looks cool to me.
- Make more girl friends. I'm from California and have grown up around enough gay people that I can flip a switch and be good friends with them. I'm also a strong believer in separating horniness from friendship so I wouldn't be plagued by the gay-best-friend struggle of being attracted to my friends. The issue with this is that I don't really do stuff that puts me in contact with girls right now, and I'm not particularly inclined to go to book club or anything.
- More serious relationship. In London I got romantically entangled with a girl. It's been really on/off and the general situation around "us" is awful: her friends hate me, my friends hate her friends, two guys I know like her, I don't like her as a person. She wants to start actually dating now that we're on campus and I just want her body. Overall indulging in her (responding to texts etc.) would be pretty easy but if anybody found out there would be blowback from all the aforementioned issues. I'm pretty sure after spring break I'm going to engage with her more, but be clear to set boundaries. To those who say: "Just get with another girl" she's got some sort of mind control over me, and I hate and am bad at dating and rizz.
I'd really appreciate feedback on these goals, is there anything I should add/change/remove? I can't do all of these, what would you guys recommend prioritising? Do you have any alternate suggestions or questions? Right now, I think I'm going for Dean's List and running, and will probably cave to the girl. Joining a club sport would be a great add-on but I don't know if it's doable time wise. Just writing this has been great for mentally mapping out my priorities.
This is half culture war half Friday fun but I'm a bit more than halfway through reading The Israel Lobby by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. Politics aside, it is a very well written political science book. If you wanted to, you could turn the book into a chart, with every thesis supported by claims which are in turn supported by (cited) evidence. This gives the book a sort of structure of hard logic, which I think is a consequence of Mearsheimer and Walt trying to avoid the charge of antisemitism (which the ADL and others have nonetheless leveled at them). The authors are very analytical and never take sides in any of the conflicts mentioned, the entire situation is presented from afar: "There is a network of individuals working to influence the US government to act in certain ways that they believe will benefit the state of Israel" (Part 2, which I haven't read yet, seems to be "why the polices the network advocates for may not serve the best interests of the US or Israel"). This book was published in 2007 so it's not a wholly contemporary analysis of the situation, but it provides a good recent history and background. Apparently the book sparked a good deal of scholarly debate, and I plan on reading some of the back-and-forth articles once I finish it. I think the book creates a strong argument that at least in in 2007 there was a network of individuals and organizations seeking to benefit Israel by influencing American opinion, discourse, and government policy. (Mods feel free to take this down if it's too spicy)
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