yofuckreddit
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User ID: 646
yofuckreddit
3d ago
I'm reading the final book in the Hyperion Cantos series.
As a recovering voracious reader with lots of free time, I've found I'm pretty picky. Almost no sci-fi in the past 10 years has captured me at all, so I'm combing back through the few classics I've missed out on.
Overall I'd give Hyperion a 8/10 which to me is a "Definitely read if you like the genre". However I have to vent about its shortcomings:
- The author clearly loves historical literature and so has pushed it into many core parts of the story. It doesn't fit in a sci-fi setting as neatly as he imagined it.
- The world building between ~1990 (when he wrote it) and 2732 (When it's set) is unbelievably sparse. There's maybe one or two wars and authors mentioned for those 700 years, no major advances in religion, etc.
- The plot armor of the cast after the first book is obvious and impenetrable. I'm not looking for Game of Thrones here, but there has to be a middle ground between that and "I can tell after a single page introduction this guy is going to
live the whole series and definitely switch to the be a good guy. - Speaking of good guys, the morality spectrum is pretty black and white here. The big bad is the big bad, and the good guys have very few rough edges. Plenty of Deus Ex Machina you can call a mile a way.
All that being said there's plenty of cool concepts and imagery. Each book in the series is pretty different which you normally don't get in a series. May dig into the Battletech books next.
yofuckreddit
7d ago
This is from my personal bias but creating time to escape to nature would be something I would mention.
Meditation working for you is great. My equivalent has been hearing utter silence but for the growing rush of wind through trees.
Trekking to isolated campsites is difficult from Manhattan though, I understand. I'd say stay up late on a rooftop every once in a while but maybe that's not even peaceful for ya!
yofuckreddit
7d ago
IIRC step-up on death is less of a policy choice than a remnant of "who knows what grandpa paid for that stuff," which matters less now it's all on a 1099-B or whatever.
Didn't even think of this, but makes sense.
yofuckreddit
7d ago
Would you eliminate it completely? Do you think it would negatively influence long-termism for investments?
Also a slightly snarky question: If they don't "patch it" in time, what will you do with your ill-gotten gains? Donate to the state/non-profit?
yofuckreddit
7d ago
I read someone say they play a game whenever putting on NPR to see how many minutes it is before there's some mention of a racial or sex/gender-related angle to whatever story they're covering, and they almost never go past 5 minutes; ever since starting to play the game myself, I actually rarely go past 1 minute these days. Could just be coincidence given, again, I rarely listen to any radio anymore these days, but I suspect it's not.
My commute is short - when I couldn't even tune into the further and more rural station to make it to work without this being the dominant angle 5 days in a row, I had to excuse myself from listening.
Now I get to listen to Spotify's "Discovery" queue instead of learning about the world, which while great is still a downgrade.
yofuckreddit
7d ago
I honestly cannot even fathom being unable to see NPR's shift in the past 8 years. Someone has to have a bare minimum of observational skills and long-term memory, and then it should just be patently obvious.
Thank god Uri brought some actual statistics to bear. Otherwise, this sort of gaslighting would perhaps have some effect because even after being constantly deployed in far less obvious cases.
I listened to NPR almost every day in the car. I fucking donated! It's now an intolerable shitshow of constant white-guilt signaling shoehorned into every single story. It went from being a bit too dry about too-boring topics to matching the hysteria level of MSNBC with maybe a half-step richer language.
Nothing is left there; it's just another empty mouthpiece I'm being forced to pay for.
yofuckreddit
9d ago
The animal part of my brain has definitely thought about the distortion of the european sexual market by some of the most beautiful women in the world and their dead male counterparts.
Anecdotally, my divorcee buddy who's living in Europe chained together at least one 8+/10 Ukrainian a month for quite a bit. Ironically ended up dating a Russian long-term.
yofuckreddit
11d ago
To be clear, there's general inclusivity (good, IMO) like them committing to half male half female characters, a ton of different races, etc.
Most local game stores you go to are also going to be woke. The game is good enough it wouldn't stop me from going, but I played regularly at a kitchen top with more average people.
Perhaps my biggest issue with the progressiveness of WotC/Magic is that the whole game's culture is hypocritical towards the aforementioned cheaters and assholes. There's millions of people who would love to play MtG professionally, I think it should be without question that anyone caught cheating a single time in a qualifier level tournament is banned for life.
yofuckreddit
11d ago
No - when you play 60 card at a game store, you'll generally be playing "Standard". This is a format with cards just in the past two years. As they print new cards, you won't be allowed to play with older ones (in that format). So minimum a couple times a year you'll have to adjust or fully rebuild the deck.
If you want to be competitive, you'll have to build more than one deck and adjust it mid-season.
Remember though, nobody is forcing you or your son to take it very seriously. You can spend $500 on a standard deck or $10. A competitive deck will be something like $50, and if you crack packs and go to pre-releases you can sometimes trade for what you want etc.
If he loves it it's absolutely worth a shot of going to pre-releases first and then diving into FNMs.
yofuckreddit
11d ago
True, and I always prioritized fun over winning.
I still remember my favorite play of all time - swinging for 36 on the final turn of an FNM with a tier 3 deck with Jarad when that was exactly his life total. The look on that guy's face is seared into my mind.
Also holy shit that was almost 10 years ago.
yofuckreddit
12d ago
I've generally preferred it to Laphroig for instance but I don't think it's a fair comparison since I only see their 10 year expressions laying around.
I haven't done as much of a deep dive on scotch as I should have at all. I'm in the southeast, so what I can get is the big boys you can see at any grocery or ABC store. I'm headed to scotland in June and plan to be very intentional about expanding my horizons.
yofuckreddit
12d ago
Completely disagree on commander. 60 card is great for learning with your kid, but for playing with more than one person it's just a way better format. The pre-cons are slow and weak, but extremely understandable for a kid. You can both upgrade them with printed proxies as he gets smarter, or leave them intact and see if you can rope the wife/other kids into playing!
When you buy those pre-cons they come with the tokens you need. People use dice on top of cards, post-it notes, and Infinity Tokens.
Over the past 5 years Magic has gotten worse, in my estimation. More woke, worse print quality, tougher balance. I don't pay for cards anymore, or at least very little. However it's still the best game ever made. I'm seriously considering paying aftermarket prices for the warhammer 40k precon commander deck that I played with recently, it was a blast.
Finally if he wants to get into the social aspect of FNM etc. I'd suggest it, eventually. But the reputation of MTG nerds is well-earned. He will find and meet cheaters and assholes - he'll also potentially find some of his best, lifelong friends. I think it's worth the risk once he's good enough to give it a shot. Be prepared to spend $ to keep up with the meta-game though.
yofuckreddit
12d ago
I don't have a specific one, but I have felt the rut as well. A couple things I like:
- Skipping television. It seems typical that those in relationships are "dragged" into watching shows and movies with their spouse. Just... don't do that more than 1-2 times a week.
- Working out. I invested in an internal bike, I can do beat saber, or during warm months I can strap some lights on a bike and hit the greenway.
- Building legos. I can milk a big set for weeks or months, and I purposefully work slowly.
- Plan a project. Build the spreadsheet, queue the cart from the home improvement store, order the car parts, do the research. Make it to where the thing you have to do during the day goes off without a hitch.
yofuckreddit
12d ago
Be warned - the bottle you lean on during trauma can be hurt by association! If it's your daily driver, consider punishing yourself with something worse instead.
I almost lost my taste for Lagavulin 16 after drinking it for my old firm being bought out by a shitty multinational and 2 deaths of close friends. Had to pull it back and reserve it for birthdays and bonuses.
Hope the difficulties from the breakup pass soon.
yofuckreddit
12d ago
I'm unreasonably psyched that you both tried a rec and liked it. I've had an excellent hit rate with that in the past and I'm glad it worked out.
Tonight I'll be having people over for a round of the Dune board game, which means I'll need to be alert enough to teach but then get drunk enough to give someone else a fighting chance. I'll be building espresso martinis on top of some elusive, limited run "Bensa Bomb" Ethiopian from my subscription, or I'll eschew the temperamental light roast for a Counter Culture staple. The homemade coffee liqueur gifted by some of my buddies really steps these up a notch over what I can get at a bar, but finding the right time to fuck up your sleep schedule when you have kids is difficult.
I may take the coward's path and just make margaritas.
When visiting Kansas a few weeks ago I dropped almost $500 on whiskey which should last me a significant amount of time, since I have cut back and largely stuck with it since January. I was able to grab Heaven Hill's 7y BiB for something like $40 and I quite enjoy it. The cheap 6 year expression was never available where I live so I don't have the FOMO that kills the taste for those who did have access.
Speaking of FOMO, I'm still milking my 2017 bottle of Rendezvous Rye from High West. I'm preparing to kill it once I have a small group over of people who actually give a shit and have a developed palate, because holy crap the old version is so much better. It doesn't even have the 16-year-old juice in it like the stuff pre-2016 did, but it's perhaps the most succinct way to explain to someone how fucking hard making great whiskey is and why MGP is such a dominant force. The current version is still drinkable, but when you put it alongside its older brother manufactured by someone else it becomes borderline unpalatable.
yofuckreddit
13d ago
bakfiets
They do sell these. I've considered getting some sort of variant of this or a longtail cargo bike for sure.
Truthfully, I'm out of room in the garage for another huge bike (for a total of 3). The price for a new one is $2,500+, wheras this trailer was $100 used. I do have some grocery and playgrounds in pedal distance and it's not out of the question, though.
yofuckreddit
13d ago
On the flipside, though, I will say that the Netherland's helmet culture is a bit of a chicken or the egg situation.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but people are generally riding heavy bikes very slowly in highly protected lanes.
If we're road riding in America, there's a significant cohort of negligent drivers. There's even a small group of drivers who want to actively hurt and kill cyclists. Helmets on public roads for riders - even to my risk-pooh-poohing self - are necessary. Not to mention the sort of downhill mountainbiking I do every once in a while.
Even our greenway, while at least an order of magnitude safer, isn't without hazards. Other cyclists are moving at a huge variety of speeds, myself included, from a drowsy beach cruiser to someone chasing a KOM on a segment. Pedestrians weave back and forth with abandon, huge groups take up the whole path, and dogs on leashes dart in front of cyclists at will.
I can minimize these greatly by being verbal and passing slowly. When I'm towing the trailer, the risk of me having to emergency stop or swerve is extremely low.
yofuckreddit
13d ago
I appreciate the input - thank ya!
The animal-parent part of my brain agrees. My youngest fell off a part of the playground recently, and it makes me want to have him wear a helmet there as well.
yofuckreddit
13d ago
I tried to keep my tone neutral to get genuine feedback but for what it's worth, my default opinion is very close to yours.
I think this is insane. I'm taking my kids to the park in what's essentially a stroller with a roll cage and a five point harness and I'm still having this disagreement with my wife//the reddit hivemind suggests I would be a piece of shit.
Riding with my toddler on that Shotgun saddle (wearing a helmet! totally necessary!) has been one of my favorite parenting experiences and he went nuts for it. Now I feel like they're miserable.
yofuckreddit
13d ago
Gotcha - FWIW the hour is cumulative (30 minutes there, then we hang out at the playground till they're tired, then we head back).
Getting it to flip would be really difficult in my experience. There's a flex joint that prevents it from doing so if the bike falls down, and I'm not exactly hopping curbs or speeding around corners.
yofuckreddit
14d ago
I've never been super comfortable pavement road riding by myself (vastly prefer gravel) so minimize road time as much as possible. I believe the chances of us being hit by a car on these roads is adjacent to zero. I agree that being hit by a car is pretty much game over regardless of roll cage etc.
I can see the helmet coming into play if I've forgotten to secure the 5-point hardness and there's a flip.
I do like taking them pretty regularly - perhaps 2x a week?
Great thoughts, thank you!
I use a bike trailer to tow my children. I take them to and from a playground, which is around a 30 minute ride in each direction.
It is 90% greenway, with some sleepy 2-lane connector roads. While I am of course an incredible pedal pumping engine capable of incredible feats, I average only around 12 mph.
The bike trailer has a 5-point harness and an aluminum roll cage.
The problem: Putting helmets on my kids looks fucking miserable. Their heads are cast downward, they have nowhere to look around, and the youngest is clearly upset after around 15 minutes in the trailer. The oldest still has an OK time but is far quieter than when we rode together with a secondary saddle. FAQ says deal with it.
Assume you're a typical parent (I.E. your children are the most important thing in your life and you can't imagine causing them harm through negligence) but you also loathe the vapid stupidity of "better safe than sorry" in the face of all rationality, would you consider forgoing the helmet?
"Other Site" discussions:
yofuckreddit
14d ago
I have always loved weed, though as I've gotten older the side effects have gotten more intense. Same as others already mentioned:
- High Heart Rate (same as alcohol)
- Difficulty being alert right after waking (noticeable, but far superior to alcohol)
- Anxiety (Worse than alcohol)
I typically create my own "Green Dragon" tincture. This allows precise dosing, eliminates damage to your lungs either through burning flower or vaping, it's easier to socialize with people who haven't tried weed before, and is a great excuse to make a citrus cocktail for consumption.
Like others mentioned, just taking a lower dose can be almost as fun with far fewer side effects. I'm an extremely cheap date at this point, and go through maybe a quarter ounce a year when partaking 1-2 times per week.
yofuckreddit
26d ago
Why is the American middle class paying for anesthesiologists to make $700k a year when their equivalents in European countries that are almost as rich are paid like $150k?
Because they graduate with $300k+ in school debt? Doctor salaries are a part of artificially constrained supply, yes, but becoming a doctor in the US requires you take on enormous financial risk.
A decade on from completing undergrad, folks in medical-adjacent fields are still underwater on pretty high interest student loans. Long term they're massively overpaid, but the people who somehow don't pass exams or don't get into medical school are fucked.
Twitter has some: https://twitter.com/olilondontv/status/1782167337682006209
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